Praise vs Worship - What’s The Difference?

For this week’s Blog Thursday post, we will be exploring what praise and worship are, the distinction between the two, and also looking further at how we can worship God.

I used to think that praise and worship were the same thing, however, on my journey with Christ, I learnt that there is a great difference between the two.

I've heard some people say that praise songs are songs that have a fast tempo and worship songs have a slow tempo; I've seen some people say that praise songs have diverse lyricism, whereas worship songs have the same lyrics being repeated over and over again. But what if I told you that the difference between praise and worship is not the tempo? What if I told you that the difference between praise and worship is not the quantity or diversity of lyrics? What if I even told you that praise and worship is way more than a song?

Praise is about what He has done. Worship is about who He is. In praise, we touch God. In worship, God touches us.

Let’s take a further look at what praise is...

Praise

Praise can be viewed as an act of worship, but it is not the same as worship. When we “praise” God, we are giving thanks to Him and honouring His name for the things He has done, is doing, or will do in our lives. For example, we praise Him for answering our prayers, or we praise Him for His love and mercy. We exalt Him, bless His name, and glorify Him. In praise, a declaration of the glory that is due to His name is being conveyed. In praise, we are demonstrating our expression of gratitude for what God is doing.

Worship

Many Christians limit worship to singing worship songs. However, we can sing our favourite worship songs, but if our mind is focused on how good the song sounds, rather than how good God is, it is not worship. We can sing worship songs that have such meaningful lyrics, but if we are not meaning the lyrics, it is not worship. Don’t get me wrong, singing songs is a great way to demonstrate your worship to God. We see throughout the Bible that people worshipped the Lord through singing. Personally speaking, I love to worship God through singing worship songs! However, worshipping God through singing is only one way to worship Him, and worship is way more than a few songs being sung. Here’s my perspective on worship...

I view worship as giving your availability to God, allowing Him to overwhelm you with the fullness of His presence, and giving the Holy Spirit room to fill you with His kindness and love. When we worship, our spirit connects to heaven, giving us a taste of the glory that is in the heavenly realms. Worship is intimacy; it is sacred yet so special. I view worship as more than having a monologue with God. I see worship as giving God your time so He can do as He wills in you, and reveal to you who He is. I see worship as soaking in His presence, meditating on His Word and His character, recognising who He is, and just surrendering.

Worship is surrender - letting go of your life and handing it over to Jesus. Worship is you saying ‘Lord, have Your way in me’. Worship requires a humble and sincere heart because worship has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with Him. Worship requires having a holy fear and reverence towards God, knowing that without Him, you can do nothing.

That being said, although we should separate time every day to soak in His presence in worship, I also view worship as a lifestyle. Every single day, hour, minute, second, we have an opportunity to worship God. This can be through the example we set for others, our words, our conduct, and our actions. Our obedience to God is the greatest way we can worship Him. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:22, “...to obey is better than sacrifice” - we can sacrifice an hour of our day, alone in our room, being still in His presence, meditating on His Word and His character in worship, but if we are disobedient by knowingly living a lifestyle of habitual sin with no intention to repent, are we really worshipping God? The answer is, no. Jesus says, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. Love is a choice. If we take a look at Jesus and His example, Jesus chose to love us by sacrificing His life for us. He proved His love through His actions. So our actions will prove whether we love Jesus or not, whether we worship Him or not.

Jesus said, “...those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Well, the truth is, sometimes we worship God “in soul” instead of “in spirit”. When we go into our time of worship, many of us carry the emotions of life with us and our mind loses its focus on the Lord. We get distracted by a notification that pops up on our phone, or we’re still carrying bitterness towards that colleague at work, or we even think about what we’re having for dinner later on. It’s okay, we’ve all been there - just shift your focus back onto God, and remember that your intimate time in worship is holy. Before we enter that time set apart for worship, it’s vital that we leave all sorts of distractions outside of our room - this shows the level we value and honour God.

In your time of worship, you can worship God in many ways, there are no limitations in worship - it’s between you and God. Make your time in worship special! Make it something to look forward to! Make it fun! God isn’t a boring god, He’s interested in what you’re interested in. So if you’re interested in art, for example, in your time of worship you can grab a canvas and paint with God; if you’re interested in music, in your time of worship you can play an instrument, alone with God; if you’re interested in dance, in your time of worship you can dance before the Lord, and the list goes on. The point of worship is not the avenue you choose to worship God, it’s all about the heart behind it. We must make sure our heart posture is right before the Lord - our heart must have pure and true motives, because as it says in 1 Samuel 16:7 “...man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Finally, I would like to emphasise the fact that our praise and worship to God should always be unconditional. Whether we are experiencing the worst time of our lives or the best, He is always worthy of our praise and worship. When we were living a rebellious, disobedient lifestyle against God, Jesus still suffered the most brutal and gruesome death on the whole world’s behalf (so that we could receive the free gift of salvation) when He didn’t deserve to - this is the greatest act of unconditional love shown in history. Let’s follow in the footsteps of Jesus and continue His ministry of unconditional love by being His ambassador, worshipping Him in spirit and truth, not just with our words, but most importantly, with our actions.