Complexity Without Knowing God

Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.

If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. ~A.W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God, p. 17-18)

True Worship

True worship begins with brokenness and humility over our sin. Mourning over our sin leads to repentance and then forgiveness. That produces freedom from guilt and bondage. Freedom gives us a greater capacity for love and then for worship. And of course, true love and worship will lead us back to a new level of brokenness, deeper repentance, increased forgiveness, freedom, love, and worship. ~Nancy Lee DeMoss

Spurred on in Sluggishness

In respect to the sluggishness of our hearts to that which is spiritual; blunt tools need whetting; a dull creature needs spurs. Our hearts are dull and heavy in the things of God, therefore we have need to spur them on and provoke then to that which is good. – The flesh hinders from duty: when we would pray, the flesh resists; when we would suffer, the flesh draws back. How hard it is sometimes to get the consent of our hearts to seek God! Jesus Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace. Had not we need then provoke ourselves to duty? If our hearts are so unstrung in religion, we had need to prepare to put them in tune. The exercises of God’s worship are contrary to nature; therefore there must be a provoking of ourselves to them. The motion of the soul to sin is natural, but its motion towards Heaven is violent. The stone moves easily to the centre; it hath an innate propensity downward; but to draw up a millstone into the air is done by violence and we must provoke ourselves to it. ~Thomas Watson, The Christian Soldier/Heaven Taken By Storm

Sin's corruption of worship

Sin has made men worship either (1) a false God, which is idolatry; or (2) God falsely which is superstition. Man has become such a fool that his worship, till enlightened and converted, is either a breach of the First or Second Commandment. He fails as to the object or the manner of worship, and both speak to man’s folly, that is his religion is either idolatry or superstition. ~Ralph Venning

Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy, pure, and jealous, and therefore to be purely worshipped; and that he is still present with you, and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do. The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy. ~Richard Baxter