Why does God want people to worship him?

Question

Surely he has better things to do.

Answer 1

I don't believe He does. Look at it this way, if you're God, what do you care what mere people think? I believe other people who worship God want and expect you to do the same. This is a sort of crutch for their own insecurities and doubts weather conscious or unconscious.

Answer 2

The BEST thing we do for oursleves and others
IS worship God! It is the greatest command
of the Bible and greatest purpose of our life since
all life and answers are found ultimately in God.

Why did God create us to worship Him?

So we can be a part of God and His plan for
us!
Why would we not want to worship God when
that is the best thing we can do in this life - the
only thing that can fulfill who we really are - our
true identity - we also have our "small work" to
contrubute - that is part of our worship as well.
It's all-inclusive.

Life is about Love more than it is about
anything else!

Answer 3

Say you created something to fellowship with you. Just by virtue of the fact that you could do it would make you a master of a lot of things. Why not command a little worship? We worship all sorts of created 'things' like Oprah (yeah, a woman said she is her messiah!), entertainers, cars, designer clothes, a coveted PhD, a man/woman, money. Why not the creator?
The better thing he has to do is to watch over you when you do decide to worship him.

Answer 4

Good question!!!

As a spiritual person, who was raised Catholic/Christian, I always wondered this, too. As a creator, I could understand God wanting love, acknowledgement, respect. But pure, blind, unadulterated worship? Utter belief in something that no one is completely sure of? And so strong in our convictions and worship that we would kill the ones we love? (Think Abraham and Isaac.)

What is the purpose of worshipping someone? Can anyone answer that? Is love worship? No. Is compassion worship? No.

I wonder myself.

Good luck in finding an answer.

Answer 5

Because worshiping Him is what leads us to Heaven, and He wants us to go to Heaven. Another way of saying the same thing is that not worshiping Him creates in us an alienation from our true self, which is found in God, and this alienation is the development of a condition called "Hell". When our soul no longer animates our material bodies, we will lose knowledge of particulars, and only the pure intellectual knowledge of universals will remain. Thus, if we die in sin, we will know then only the universal principles of sin, and none of the particular pleasures attached to them through cognition on Earth will remain. The sin of failure to worship will then cause pain akin to a fiery inferno, but the alienation from God will place the sinner in such a state of loathsome hatred, that he will be unable to repent.

Answer 6

Because, if we don't worship God we will fall prey to the tricks of Satan and only bad things can come from that. The worst being forfeiture of Salvation. Also don't you think the creator of Heaven and earth Deserve worship?

Answer 7

He does have better things to do. He's on Yahoo! Answers answering questions right now, and then He has a dinner engagement at 7:00.

Answer 8

You are exactly right. God has no need of worship.

Answer 9

Like what? If you're worshipping God, what else would you do?

Answer 10

It is important here to understand how the word jealous is used. How it used in Exodus 20:5 to describe God is different from how it is used to describe the sin of jealousy (Galatians 5:20). When we use the word jealous, we use it in the sense of being envious of someone who has something we don't have. A person might be jealous or envious of another person because he or she has a nice car or home (possessions). Or a person might be jealous or envious of another person because of some ability or skill that other person has (such as athletic ability). Another example would be that one person might be jealous or envious of another because of his or her beauty.

When we look at this verse, we find that it is not that God is jealous or envious because someone has something He wants that He does not possess. Exodus 20:4-5 says, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." Notice that in this verse God is talking about being jealous if someone gives something that belongs to Him to another.

In these verses, God is speaking of people making idols and bowing down and worshiping those idols instead of giving God the worship that belongs to Him alone. God is possessive of the worship and service that belong to Him. It is a sin (as God points out in this commandment) to worship or serve anything other than Him. So, in summary, it is a sin when we desire, or we are envious, or we are jealous of someone because he has something that we do not have. It is a different use of the word jealous when God says He is jealous. What He is jealous for belongs to Him; worship and service belong to Him alone, and are to be given to Him alone.

Perhaps a practical example will help us to understand the difference. If a husband sees another man flirting with his wife, he is right to be jealous, for only he has the right to flirt with his wife. This type of jealousy is not sinful. Rather, it is entirely appropriate. Being jealous for something that belongs to you is good and appropriate. Jealousy is a sin when it is a desire for something that does not belong to you. Worship, praise, honor, and adoration belong to God alone, for only He is truly worthy of it. Therefore, God is rightly jealous when worship, praise, honor, or adoration is given to idols. This is precisely the jealousy the Apostle Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:2, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy..."