Quotes About Worship

Welcome to our blog dedicated to exploring the profound impact of quotes about worship! As worship leaders, we recognize the profound influence that words possess in shaping our understanding and expression of worship. Quotes about worship capture the essence of our faith, ignite passion, and offer fresh perspectives that inspire us to dive deeper in the Lord.

Within this blog written by Jonathan Swindal, we embark on an exploration of carefully curated quotes about worship, designed to invigorate your leadership, nurture your soul, and infuse your worship experience with profound significance. Join us as we delve into some of the most impact quotes that in turn point us into going deeper in the Lord.

So whether you’re reading these quotes about worship for yourself, preparing for a sermon on worship, or even want to share a quick devotional with your team – we know they will impact all who meditate on them.

Our hope is that these are more than cool-sounding words or something you read, post online, and forget. We hope these fill your soul, pull at your heart, and lead you closer to the Lord.

QUOTE 1: “A glimpse of God will save you. To gaze at Him will sanctify you.” – Manley Beasley (Southern Baptist Evangelist)

I’ve seen and heard this quote many times and I think it gets at an important concept: salvation and sanctification both flow from the worship of God, but they happen in different ways. Salvation comes in the moment we recognize our need and call to the God who saves! But as we continue to fix our attention on this God – contemplating his nature and his character – we will be changed into His image, purified from all that is within us that is unlike Him.

Some Jewish traditions recognize “two exoduses” in the book of Exodus: the deliverance of the people of Israel from within Egypt – their salvation; and deliverance from the ways of Egypt within the people – their sanctification. Moses, on behalf of the people, cried out to God for deliverance and on the other side of the ten plagues it was granted by God through Pharoah! But almost immediately the Israelites were complaining that their deliverance and subsequent forced dependence on God was worse than enslavement and the certainty it had provided.

The ways of slavery were so deeply embedded in their habits, behaviors, and psyche they needed sanctification that God knew could happen as they wandered. Their wilderness experience sanctified them because they were forced to quite literally look up to the cloud and the pillar of fire, teaching them dependence on God. This is no less true for us today. A glimpse of the beauty and goodness of God is enough to captivate us, but the work of transformation requires a life of turning our “gazing” from the ways and promises of Pharaoh and into the face of Jesus. 

QUOTE 2: “Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped.” – Jack Hayford

This is a nice logical follow-up to the previous quote. How does “gazing at Him” sanctify us? Psalm 115 tells us that we become like what we behold. This statement is universally true of the human experience; as Christians our aim is to fully worship God and therefore be changed into his image. But this is also true of any object of worship.

If our eyes are fixated on the economy, we will worship money and the false sense of security that it brings. We will also be more prone to fear and control – as we innately are – rather than generosity and trust, which is what we were made for. We go where our attention, focus, and our energy go. Paying careful attention to God as revealed in the life of his Son, Jesus, will draw us toward him in ways that we cannot simply “will” to happen.

God is the only recipient of worship who is worthy of our worship, and God is the only One who can transform us from the inside out rather than simply mold us after the patterns of sin and death. As much as anything, worship is a posture of submission to the God who is drawing us into His own life and sharing with us His own character. We worship God because we were designed to and because he is worth it; and as we do we are truly changed to be more fully like him and most fully ourselves. 

QUOTE 3: “Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other.” – Oswald Chambers  //  For years, the church has emphasized evangelism, teaching, fellowship, missions, and service to society to the neglect of the very source of its power – worship. – Robert E. Webber

In the circles in which I grew up, it was common to emphasize the need to “sit with Jesus” over and against working for Jesus on Sunday, but propel the congregation to get out of their comfort zone and evangelize on Wednesday night. We don’t do well holding tensions, but at least we knew they were both essential to the Christian life.

These two quotes about worship bridge the gap between the over-simplistic divide between “being” and “doing,” intimacy and mission, Mary and Martha. As I have written previously, worship is about encountering God and his people, being formed into the image and character of his Son, and being drawn into the work of God in the world. The worship of the Church is anemic when it is missing any of these three. 

We could say that the worship of the Church never ceases, but is always turning back to God, then turning outward toward the world, then returning back to God, and so forth. Our God is alive and our worship should press us deeper into both realities: that God never changes and yet, he is always on the move and at work in the world.

To the story of Mary and Martha found in Luke 10.

Many times this has been taught as a way of prioritizing the way of Mary above the way of Martha. But if you read the Gospels carefully – particularly the Gospel of Luke! – it’s quite clear that true worship of Jesus will always lead us to serve the world in perhaps no greater way than through the works of hospitality and intercession. Meister Eckhart, the 13th C. mystic and theologian, supposes that one possible distinction to be drawn out in the Mary and Martha story is that Martha’s disposition toward Mary was that of impatience with her inability to be with Jesus and work.

Martha couldn’t understand why Mary needed to sit still to be attentive to Jesus, when she could do both.

In other words, Eckhart rightly assumes that it is essential to learn to do both things well while discerning when it is time to lean into one thing without abandoning the other. I believe this is wisdom: being with Jesus is essential for any meaningful work to be done, and yet it is not enough to “do the work” if it is divorced from “gazing” at God. We must learn to live holding our “gaze” on Jesus while working for him and with him in the spirit of intercession. And that is certainly what Jesus did and is still doing through his Church.  

Now that you’ve read these…

In conclusion, our blog on quotes about worship has offered a profound exploration of the significance these words hold. Ultimately, they highlight the importance of fixing our gaze upon God, recognizing how worship ignites our passion and opens our hearts to deeper experiences of His presence.

Through these quotes about worship, we’ve discovered the transformative power of worship, as it molds us into the image of the One we worship. Furthermore, we’ve delved into the inseparable relationship between worship and intercession, recognizing the integral role both play in a vibrant and impactful worship life.

As we conclude this blog, we invite you to embrace these quotes about worship not as mere words but as gateways to a deeper connection with the Lord. May they inspire your soul, transform your perspective, and lead you into a more profound worship experience—one that draws you ever closer to the heart of God.

Other posts, like our with quotes about worship, that we know you’ll love:

• Passion for Worship: Matt Redman Talks on Keeping a Pure Heart
• Amanda Cook on Healing the Mind & Enriching Our Affection for Jesus
• 5 Things Volunteers Do that Annoy their Worship Pastors More than Anything