PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP

 

PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP

Eccl. 5:1-2 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don’t be a fool who doesn’t realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. And don’t make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven and you are only here on earth. So, let your words be few. NLT

Are today’s verses typical of your worship experience? Do you listen much and talk little or do you do like most people and socialize more than you meditate before your church service? I have been in a lot of church services over the years, and the typical scene is that people are talking right up to the moment the service is to begin. Time is spent connecting with others rather than with God.

Think about it for a moment. We best prepare ourselves for worship by quieting our hearts before God. It is when we focus on Him that we best worship Him. We experience the blessing of being in God’s presence when we enter into His space. He is not found in the noise and clamor of the world around us; He is found in the stillness of our souls before Him.

The Lord is not another item on our agenda as we gather for worship; He is our agenda. He deserves our full attention. We can’t switch gears from socializing one moment and focusing on the Lord the next. We need to spend some time in quiet before we approach Him in worship.

Also, we must do a better job of respecting who our Lord is, He is holy. We must understand that the Lord is who He is and act accordingly. Mindless offerings are what we bring to Him out of duty instead of love. Whatever it is we give or do before Him, if our hearts are not rightly connected to Him, it’s all for nothing.

We must watch what we promise the Lord. If you don’t mean what you say, don’t say it. God judges the integrity of the heart. Say what you mean and mean what you say to the Lord. If you vow to do things differently in your life, then work hard to do it. Don’t neglect your promises to God, for He holds you accountable for them.