Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “All of us perform wudoo when we want to pray. But most of the time a person does so just wanting to fulfill a condition of worship, and there is no harm in that and what is intended [i.e., being pure for prayer] is achieved by it.

But there is something higher and more complete.

When you want to perform wudoo, sense that you are obeying the Order of Allaah, mentioned in His Saying, the Most High,“O you who have believed! When you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and (wash) your feet to the ankles.” [Maa’idah 5:6] so that the meaning of worship can be realised in you.

Sharh al-Arba’een an-Nawawiyyah, p. 253.