Worship in Truth

One of the hardest things about being a Christian is living in a flesh-and-blood body connected to a physical world full of stuff. The world around us constantly competes for our attention. From the moment the very first toy was placed into our tiny hands, the things of this world have pursued our interest.

We grew up surrounded by objects designed to entertain, distract, and captivate us—and sometimes those things end up holding more sway in our lives than the very God who created us and the things around us.

There is a reason one of the Ten Commandments forbids the making of graven images to worship as God. While very few people in the western world carve golden calves anymore, the principle behind that commandment hits close to home. God knows human nature. He knows how easily we reach for something we can see, touch, or hold—a physical object that seems to offer guidance, stability, or comfort. As long as we can feel the presence of some big important thing, we think we’re secure.

But God never intended for us to walk by feelings. He calls us to walk by faith. The world says, “Seeing is believing,” but for the Christian, the opposite is true: not seeing is believing. Paul reminds us, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

God is not a flesh-and-blood being you can hold in your hands. You cannot grasp Him the way you might grasp an idol, a trinket, or an object of comfort. And that is precisely the point. Any “god” you can physically touch in this fallen world is not God—and is not worthy of worship.

Instead, Jesus tells us plainly: true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Faith reaches beyond what the eyes can see. It recognizes that the visible world is not the foundation of our confidence. As Hebrews declares, “The things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

So we worship Him—not based on what we can hold, but on the unseen truth of who He is. We worship by faith, in spirit, and in truth, because the God who made all things is greater than anything our hands could ever touch.