Understanding the difference between praise and worship?
Understanding The Difference Between Praise And Worship
How we praise and how we worship
Understanding the difference between praise and worship will help us to give God the honor he is due with the proper heart posture.
We often hear people say – Praise God, and immediately, we begin to dance, sing, and lift our hands and hearts to acknowledge the great things God has done for us.
Then, we hear people say to worship God, and ultimately – we do the same thing. How can the words be different, but the response to them be virtually identical?
We respond the same to both commands because we don’t fully understand the difference between the two.
Praise Vs. Worship
Understanding the difference between Praise vs. Worship:
Webster’s definition of praise is:
1: To express a favorable judgment of COMMEND
2: to glorify (a god or saint), especially by the attribution of perfections.
To praise God means we assess the things he has done and express gratitude or appreciation toward him for them.
Because he is a perfect God who has done a perfect work, we give him praise. Think of your child coming home from school with a straight A report card – you praise him or her with language that conveys the message of a job well done.
You commend them because you have judged their performance to be perfect. Therefore, you attribute perfection to their achievement. You praise their achievement and rave over what a great job they’ve done.
However, you understand there is a difference, and you do not worship your child for this accomplishment. This accomplishment doesn’t (or shouldn’t) make you love them any more or less because it doesn’t contribute to them as a person.
It is the same with praising God. We attribute perfection to him because of the work done on the cross and in our lives individually. We praise him for it.
Understanding the difference between Praise Vs. Worship:
Webster’s definition of worship is:
1: To honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power
2: to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.
When we worship God, we stand in awe of who he is! We acknowledge him as Lord and Savior. We give him Glory simply for being The Almighty who sits on high and looks way down low. Worship comes when we think about his omniscience.
Worship does not require us to assess what he has done for us because we worship him regardless if he does anything. We worship him because he is a Big God, full of grace and mercy. He is the Prince of Peace! So, we respect and honor him as the supreme divine being that he is.
No itemization of his achievements is required. He is just God. And therefore, worthy of all the worship (and the praise) that we can muster.
Understand that even if you wholeheartedly believe that you have good reason to suggest that he has not done enough in your life or situation for you to praise him(yet), you admittedly acknowledge that he has completed the work that demands his total worship.
Heart posture matters
Understanding the differences between praise and worship will help us to know how to approach God with a heart posture that accurately expresses the message we want to convey to him with the gesture.
Not that singing hymns or lifting our hands is not suitable in both situations. But knowing why we are doing it will deepen the experience and put a smile on God’s heart.
A great way to remember the difference between praise and worship is to understand that –
We praise God for what he does (or did), and we worship him for who he is!
Check out the post on How Praise, Worship, and Thanksgiving can help you win spiritual battles.
