Excerpt from “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren

SECTION 2 (You were planned for God’s Pleasure)

God created us for his pleasure and he is happy when we live for his pleasure. ⁸ When we love God supremely and completely trust him he tends to smile at us.⁹ Offering ourselves to God completely; surrendering is what worship is all about.¹⁰ God wants intimacy with us; he wants you to open up to him as a friend. “It is a privilege to love God and being loved by God is his greatest pleasure.”¹¹ It is the level of your friendship with God that determines how much you get from him¹² The only worship that pleases God is “worshipping God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength.”¹³ When God feels distant, it is to test our loyalty to him, our faith in him as a friend.¹⁴

FURTHERMORE

Worship is not a measure of the music played, or the dance displayed, it is a function of the heart. God values the little kindness, care, love, patience we show to others and this is an act of worship. God wants all of Us - Spirit, Soul and Body. It is important to start being conscious of God’s presence in our lives. Involving God in the smallest issue, continual shorter conversation with God matters a lot to him than a seldom long session of complex prayers. Our friendship with God can only be sustained with our sincerity and honesty to him.

If each and every one of us will surrender all to God, he is ready to listen to us and provide solutions to whatever challenge we may be facing. The major barriers to worship are pride, fear, confusion, greediness. God cannot do anything without our will; the will is very powerful and God can only have his way if we willingly surrender to his Government.