Worship Is Divinely Creative

The tremendous spiritual power of worship is often underestimated. Worship rejuvenates, revitalizes, and regenerates—it literally transforms us in every way. It is by far the best way to draw upon the spiritual energies and divine forces all around us.

On the highest spiritual level, intelligent worship is a loving reverence for a perfect Divine Being, the Source of all reality. It is a simple but humble act of adoration and praise. It is a heartfelt love and affectionate veneration for the Infinite and Eternal Source and all that it represents.

Whatever we adore, idolize, or worship is what we become. When my daughter was young, she idolized a female pop star. She dressed like her, acted like her, and even tried to sing like her. In the process, she was recreating herself; she was becoming the very thing she worshiped.

A spiritual transformation is no different in principle. When we idolize the beauty, goodness, and truth of a divine Creator, we become beautiful, good, and true ourselves. When we love, adore, and revere spiritual ideals, we eventually become those ideals. In every sense, worship is divinely creative.

Worship changes the worshiper into the image of One worshiped.

– Jack W. Hayford

By venerating the ideals of divinity, we identify with these ideals. It is the psychological process making them a reality in our lives.

Upgrade Your Image of God

Over the ages, people have worshiped almost anything you can imagine—stones, mountains, trees, animals, the sun, the stars, and even other people. Nature worship is one of the earliest expressions of devotion, which is not surprising considering that early humans, immersed as they were in their natural surroundings, relied heavily on wild animals and plants. And at the time, natural events, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, thunder, and lightning were inexplicable. Even in the modern era, many afflictions and natural catastrophes are still attributed to acts of God.

But nature is not God—and natural disasters are not a form of divine retribution. All things in nature, like all things in the universe, are either products or by-products of the original acts of creation. Worship, in its highest expression, focuses on the Source of all reality, not the manifestations of it. Nevertheless, the beauty of nature can truly inspire us to worship the divine Source.

Perfection is in nature, but nature is not perfect.

– The Urantia Book

Intelligent worship is most effective and truly transforming when we have a more accurate image of the true nature of God. Achieving this requires a clear concept about what is meant by divine nature, at least as much as is humanly possible.

This doesn’t mean we have to envision God with any form, like an old man in the sky, but instead that we imagine the personal nature of God as well as the ideals of divinity. These might appear to be intangible realities, but they are in fact spiritual realities. They give us something tangible to attain—positive spiritual thoughts.

We begin the process by drawing on the potential of our creative imaginations because it’s difficult to adore or worship something you cannot imagine or conceive. See Creative Imagination as a Spiritual Technique.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • God is the First Cause of all things—the one and only uncaused reality.
  • God is primal and infinite reality—without God there would be no reality.
  • God is eternal—always was and always will be.
  • God is alive and active in the present moment.
  • God is life and the source of all life.
  • God is eternal power—upholding and renewing the universe.
  • God is the universal source of all force, energy, and light.

For more ideas on the nature of God, see God-Consciousness, especially Essential Concepts of God.

What you are attempting to do is to come as close as you can to realizing the full truth about the nature of God and then to align yourself with this truth by becoming more like God in your thoughts and deeds.

It may seem like a far-fetched goal but think of it as the spiritual carrot that beckons you forward. How much truth you realize and absorb depends on your willingness and readiness to receive God’s wisdom, and it also depends on your wholehearted conviction that a loving God can and will reveal truth to you.

No matter how much success you have in visualizing a perfect God, keep in mind that there actually does exist a true, infinite, eternal, and loving Universal Spirit behind and beyond all your imaginations. Your job is simply to know this God to the best of your ability.

In the God experience, worship is the act of linking your superconscious mind with the Spirit of God within you. Your adoration of God is a state of mind that allows you to make a loving connection with the very Source of Light and Life, a connection that harmonizes your thoughts, feelings, and emotions with the divine nature. It is, indeed, the most powerful technique freely available for your spiritual transformation.

While prayer provides nutritional food for the soul and helps to sustain us spiritually, worship is a divinely creative manna that literally recreates us. It is the psychological practice of uniting with God in a dynamic way, making us more like the divinity we adore (see also Prayer – The Breath of Life).

Prayer is spiritually sustaining, but worship is divinely creative.

– The Urantia Book

A worship experience is simple and effortless. It occurs any time we contemplate and venerate the attributes and nature of God, or when we ponder and aspire to divine ideals and values. It is a devotional exercise always enhanced by imagining ourselves in the immediate presence of God while having complete faith and trust in divine wisdom and goodness.

Sharing your inner life with God is the beginning of your intimate relationship with the divine Presence. And you cultivate this worshipful state of mind by attempting to feel the presence and love of God. In this state, we contemplate the infinity and eternity of God, we stand in awe of the magnificence, brilliance, and glory of this majestic Spirit—the loving Source of all things.

Worship is a personal communion with that which is divinely real, with that which is the very source of reality.

– The Urantia Book

Worship Is Self-Less but Beneficial

Buddha and worship

In Zen meditation, practitioners not only admire the qualities of Buddhahood, but they also attempt to forget themselves in order to merge with universe consciousness, the wisdom of Tao. This is a meaningful objective similar to that of the God experience, in which worship is the act of forgetting ourselves so that we may become unified with the First Source.

Worship is the act of a part identifying itself with the Whole; the finite with the Infinite.

– The Urantia Book

Indeed, genuine worship is completely selfless. Unlike prayer, it asks for nothing and expects nothing in return. We get ourselves completely out of the way. It is our act of selfless adoration, an attitude of mind in which we look up to and revere the perfection of God in all ways and all things.

Nonetheless, while an attitude of true worship is selfless, it has many rewards for the worshiper. Apart from transforming our spiritual natures, it’s a source of relaxation, dissolves anxieties, eliminates mental conflicts, enhances our powers of reflection, and gives us the ability to perceive ever-deepening meanings and values. Intelligent worship fosters wisdom and courage, augments spiritual insight, and inspires the soul.

Through worship, we approach divine realities and begin to see things from a spiritual and cosmic perspective. This, in turn, lends a hand to greater wisdom, increasing self-realization, cosmic consciousness, and God consciousness.

Our love for the divine is then reflected in our own lives through loving service and unselfish devotion to others. These are the acts of a spirit-born soul wholeheartedly dedicated to the love of God.

We worship God first because he is, then because he is in us, and last because we are in him.

– The Urantia Book

There is no need to worry about how we should worship or what we should say. There is no correct way to worship. More so, it’s an attitude of mind rather than a string of words. It is our humble admiration and complete trust in a perfect God. It comes from our hearts and souls. All we need to do is consciously allow the inner Spirit to conduct worship on our behalf. It is effortless adoration.

We could begin by imagining and admiring the truth of God, the beauty of God, and the love of God, and then move on to a reverence for the goodness of God. We could also give thanks to the spiritual forces in us and all around us. Throughout it all, we have faith that, by yielding to these good powers, we cannot fail—nothing can stop us. All we have to do is try.

Worship, taught Jesus, makes one increasingly like the being who is worshiped.

The Urantia Book

Your Connection With God

Of all the worship techniques mentioned above, nothing compares to the realization that we are indeed spiritual children of a heavenly Father. It is an essential attitude of mind needed to connect with God and obtain heightened spiritual insight.

The truth of this relationship is reinforced whenever we ponder our spiritual possessions, such as personality, mind, and soul, as well as the fact that our souls are the creation of a joint venture with God (see Your Soul – What Is It?). All of this points to the spiritual truth that we are indeed creatures of a Creator God.

God is the Divine Parent of all freewill beings. And anyone who has been a parent or who can identify with the love and care of children is keenly aware of the depth and scope of this unselfish and unconditional love. It is a divine love we can easily cherish.

In an ideal world, a child doesn’t need to do anything to make their parents love them. Similarly, we do not have to do anything to make God love us since his love shines on all of us at every moment. True, we can destroy ourselves by our own choices and we can reject his infinite love if we so wish, as any child can. But it is always there whenever we are ready and willing to receive it.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God, are the children of God.

– Paul of Tarsus

Prepare yourself for a spiritual experience unlike any other when you wholeheartedly come to believe that you are, in truth, a spiritual child of a Spirit Creator. It is a truth that will transform you, bringing you peace of mind and inner happiness. Indeed, the very first step in your divine journey is to imagine, accept, and believe this truth. It is an essential belief that leads you to the very gateway of an amazing and eternal spiritual adventure.

By accepting you are a spiritual child of God, you come to understand the true nature of your relationship with such a magnificent and almighty Power. Only the trusting and humble can ever hope to approach the infinite, eternal, and majestic presence of the Universal Father.

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

– Jesus of Nazareth

When Jesus tells us to become like little children in order to enter the spiritual realm, he’s not suggesting we should be childish in our approach to spirituality, but rather that we recognize and accept our true child-parent relationship with God. It is a relationship of love and understanding, one that combines an adult’s resolute courage and determination with a child’s wholehearted faith and trust in the good and wise guidance of a Divine Parent. See also Your Self as a Spiritual Child.