John 4:23-24 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This is a passage that I have been pondering on for awhile now. My prayer has been continuously, "Lord, please teach to worship in spirit and in truth." I believe I have a decent understanding of worshiping in spirit. Allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my own private worship and when I am lead worshiper at church. I think I am getting a pretty good handle on that part of it. But to worship in truth. What does that mean? I don't lie when I worship. How can I? Anything I attribute to God that is good is going to be true. He truly is my salvation, my provider, my healer, my refuge, my rock, my fortress. He truly will never leave me nor forsake me, but He truly will always be by my side to help me through anything. I have heard this, I have seen this, ---- I have lived this. I have not only heard this with my ears and spoken it with my mouth, but I have seen this with my very own eyes. He has provided for me and been there to pull me through. So what does it mean to worship in truth?

I consider myself a bit of a student of Greek, the language the New Testament was written in. So let's look at what Christ was saying literally in that passage. He said that true worshipers "en pneumati kai aletheia dei proskunein." Okay, what does that mean? Let's look at it word for word. 'En' pretty self explanatory - in. 'Pneumati' literally means breath, and is used for wind and Spirit. So our worship must be the breath of our spirit but it must be a breath that is supplied by the Holy Spirit. 'Kai' -- simply a conjunction, and. 'Aletheia', here is where the crux of this lesson lies. Aletheia is always translated as truth or true. But the 'letheia' part is lethe when un-conjugated. If any readers happen to know any Greek mythology, you will recognize the word. Lethe in Greek mythology is one of the rivers of Hades. One drink from this river will cause the drinker to forget all that has ever happened before. The word lethe literally means to forget. Coming from the root lanthano, meaning to conceal. The 'a' at the beginning of the word aletheia denotes a negation. So it negates the letheia. Making it to mean to un-forget or un-conceal. What is it to un-forget something? It of course means to remember. But what is un-conceal? Aaahh, to reveal. Worship is a response to revelation. (To really understand this buy and read Matt Redman's book 'Facedown'.)

So we must remember the revelation that we have been given of who Christ is and what He has done. I have to admit that I had forgotten the revelation I had of Him a few years ago. It is so easy to get complacent in our walk of worship. I had a revelation of how He is there to help us through trials awhile back. I was going through a very bad time in my life and really wasn't sure about a lot of things. But when I would get by myself and just basically whine to God about what I was going through, He would always remind me that He is there all time.

"You were there all the time
Holding out Your hand reaching for mine
Telling me how much You care
And all the time, all the time You were there"
("You Were There" ©2005 Danny Groff)

But the situation was taken care of and I had become happy and content again. And complacent. I had forgotten the revelation of how He is always there. I have written several songs based on that idea over the past few years, but I tended not to remember the revelation any longer when I worshiped God. But recently God has reminded me. When I started to look at how I worship compared to what Christ said about true worshipers. Do I worship in truth? I don't think I am completely there yet but I do believe that I am on my way now.

So let us always strive to remember the revelation. For it is in the revelation that we find the truth of who He is and what He has done.