Does God need or even want our worship?

Pose, that is a great question, one of the most intelligent I have seen in relation to God - most discussions seem to set a rather combative tone, this one is really interesting. I too base my thinking on Biblical principles and what I understand of God in that context. You are quite right that Jesus was certainly interested in helping people physically as well as spiritually, he promoted the idea of prayer being private and slated the Pharisees for praying loudly in public - this is the sort of worship that man sees and judges but is of no value to God. However, he spent the whole night before he was arrested, praying in the Garden of Gesthemane, therefore we know that he put a value on prayer. My thoughts on whether God demands or even looks for worship have been formed by thinking about why God would make men in the first place. The Bible doesn't really tell us this, and after all, how can the created being understand the motives of the creator? Yet my instincts tell me that God created man with a free will, in order to be acknowledged (call it worship if you prefer) by a creature that would need to seek Him, and have faith in Him. This is in contrast to beings and spirits (such as 'Angels' or 'Demons') that would have certain knowledge of God because they had seen Him. I hope this makes sense to you, I could probably ramble on for hours, but I'll keep this short for now

God may not need our worship but for sure he do appreciate it. Worship in the sense of expressing our faith, honoring , praising and giving Him thanks for all the blessings and all his creations.

God does not need our praise. We are not going to add anything to God or lessen him when we mention his name in vain. I think when we praise God we are doing ourselves good. We keep the spirit alive the connection link alive between God and men. God wants us to be close to him and we find our worth when we are close to God.

God does not need our prayers and worship. This kind of duties are assigned in any religion to test our status and attitude towards God it shows our faith and sincerity towards God. One more thing God is free from all needs, he is 10000% perfect and if he needs something then he is not God he needs someone else to settle the system.

I am happy to announce that the answer to that question is "Only God Knows". We are, after all, humans, and although we can assume anything, it'll only be speculation. We wouldn't even know what someone needs or wants until that person gives us cues and clues, how on earth we would know what God really wants or needs, if God Himself doesn't tell us, right? Well, it's quite human to be curious. Curiosity won't kill humans. I like your phrase "in other words action is real prayer", although I would say, since the Book tells us that "All Humans and Jinns are created to submit to God", life itself is a form of submission. I also agree with your statement "It is because we think that God has to be like us, that we get that idea.". You see, with our mental limits, how on earth will we be able to figure out how God is like? We cannot even figure out the things outside our 3-dimension world. Therefore I happily announce that "Only God Knows"...

Pose123, I must disagree that a God "who hands out rewards and punishment..." is a primitive deity. If God opened up His Kingdom today and left me out because I cannot follow His laws, that is punishment. As others here have said, worship is what God tells us to do. This is a "pie in the sky" God who has rules that we must follow, if we are to be members of His Kingdom when Jesus returns. The Lord's prayer is a covenant that we trust He will do as He says, and that we will freely do according to His will. And as you say, our actions should be the "real prayer", our keeping of the covenant with God. I also see that as we on earth look for the treasures that this planet has, God has treasures that are beyond imagining. But that is so hard to comprehend because of our earthly experiences. And lastly, yes I believe that He does want our worship.

In my opinion prayer is good for the soul ,but prayer without actions is not contributing to anything.

As I read your Post it comes to me that you have this idea all sewed up in a neat little package. Yes, this Praise and Worship thing, is a throwback to more primitive times, when the tribes were ruled by the biggest,the strongest, the toughest! We (those of us who think for ourselves) are no longer deceived by Organized Religions who have a good thing going.( So why fix it?) We will not be scared into Worshiping a Fearsome God, by any Priest, or Pastor! Our Happy Healthy Lifestyle, includes a Thankful Heart, and Joyful Praise, to our Creator!

God absolutely does not need our worship as He is the Almighty. It is us who find it a need to worship God. Just like parents and children. It not the parents who expect their children to respect them. But it is us, the children, who must respect the parents as they have provided us with anything we need. God has created all the things that are merely provided for us. So, worshipping Him is our way to show our gratitude. It is that simple, isn't it? Why still ask while everything we need has been provided by God?

If God "needed" worship, if it was necessary for His survival, I don't think He would have given us free will to or not to worship Him. God wants our passionate devotion because it results in blessings for the worshiper. I don't believe you can truly worship God and then refuse to do as He requires, such as following the examples of Jesus. Through worship, we acknowledge that God is the supreme being and by obeying Him we acknowledge that He is the Lord of our lives. He is worthy of our worship.

God does not need or want our worship. God is beyond the petty things of man like greed, anger, hate, revenge, controlling,ego,and power hunger.For those of you who even start to understand God, you should know that God's greatest moments are when that light bulb goes off over your head and you UNDERSTAND!

I dont think God needs it but he wants us to. God is the father of all mankind. While we are here on earth we are separated from us because he has a plan for us and being away from him is part of this plan. Lets take for example if you are a father and your son or daughter went off to college and he/she was away for a while and he/she never contacts you and never told you about his whereabouts, how would you feel? Probably you feel worried or you would of course want hi/her to contact as often as he/she can. This is how God feel that's why we need to worship Him as a sign that we respect Him as our Father.

hmmm, Pose I really can't answer on that question. I think he needs my worship, because he is God, and we must believe in him, as believe in heaven, just because he also needs support and also he needs it just to know, that we believe in him so that he can prepare a place for us near him

i think the real question is what is the purpose of human existence in this world? why are we created by God? we know that God is all powerful and everything great and glorious. God can make everything when God wants it right? then what is our purpose? and we know also that our prayers and worships does not benefit our God in anyway, it is us who needs God and God does not need us. God has everything, God could not possible need something from things God created.. then why are we created???

I agree. If God is all that we make God out to be, then why is God insecure enough to need our worship? I am thankful for what we have, but I am just not sure about the human side of worship. I agree that worship definitely serves human needs as opposed to devine ones. Well put!

Does God need it, no. Does he want it, yes.

God does not need worship. We need to seek Him so that we can get back to the Him. If in our worship(which [B]is[/B] mainly for our convenience or working at our own imperfections) we don't come to see His Omnipresence, in every being in our own world then worship hasn't led us anywhere. The benevolence of the Lord is so much that we need just turn to Him, he will rush to us. If anything worship could possibly reduce this distance between God and us. Once one "learns"(I mean by this get it in our bones: actually I would say in our souls but it would not be borrowing the idiom)how to feel close to Him every moment, then one has crossed the need to worship.

Actually, what is the purpose of our life. work,Eat and sleep. No, there must be something more than that.That is what, you have said and Jesus followed in His life.It is true , as long as we live in the world, we should do something to mankind.The amount of help one render may differ from person to person and according to capacity.One of speech I heard that one Hindu lady in West Bengal , in India snatched a food from Mother Therasa when she was distributing, and ran to his neighbors and fed to a Muslim who was suffering of Hunger.That Hindu lady was also at hunger. When she returned to Mother took apology for snatching the food and explained her the situations. There humanity prevailed. But now we spent huge amount of money on weapon instead of helping mankind.