What is Worship?

I use Open Windows for my daily devotions. Each day has a Bible verse, a short real life application, and a sentence prayer. Because it's brief, I find it a convenient tool and have used it for many years. The contributors are various pastors, professors, and individual people from all walks of life.

This past Friday, Marvin Nail discussed worship. "Worship designed to stir our excitement and make us feel good seems to miss the point. Instead, worship should fill us with awe that God permits us to come into His presence," I like that!

My all-time favorite definition for worship follows:

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. All this is gathered up in that emotion which most cleanses us from selfishness because it is the most selfless of all emotions--adoration. William Temple

How would you define worship?

Tomorrow as requested, my all-time favorite worship song.