Prepare For Worship

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1-2 NIV

I thought it was strange as a child that every Saturday night my family had to be home early. Why? We had to get ready for church! My parents told us that we needed to be rested and have our minds and hearts prepared for the Lord’s Day. Over the years I have come to not only appreciate what they taught, but have taken that understanding to another level.

In our daily lives we see the importance of preparation. Have you ever seen someone give a presentation that was unprepared? They lose track of what they are saying, they seem nervous, their thoughts are not clear and they come across in a loud way that what they were asked to do along with the audience that they were to do it for were not that important to them.

On the other hand have you ever seen a young person getting ready for a really important date? If the date is on Friday, they often begin days before preparing for the event. Guys go to the gym to buff up and girls eat like birds to make sure they fit into the special outfit. They wouldn’t think about showing up on Friday night unprepared. Why? Because the person they are meeting, in their minds, “hung the moon”!

What do you do to prepare for our corporate worship gatherings? It’s not a small matter that God takes this subject of preparation very seriously. Throughout Scripture we see that when people entered into the presence of God there were very specific ways they had to prepare and to enter. God required preparation and if not followed serious consequences were received. That is because God is a Holy God and flippant unprepared acts of worship did not show proper acknowledgement of who He was.

In this age of Grace we are not required to do many of the same things as were prescribed in the Older Testament, however, we worship the same God and He is no less worthy of our giving our all in preparing to enter His presence in worship. God expects and requires our hearts to be prepared. That takes effort on our part. Yes, it takes work and it takes time. But as David said, “… I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing." 1 Chr 21:24

This next week think about meeting with Him. Live in anticipation of meeting with the God of the universe! What can you do and how can you prepare to offer your best to Him. Let’s remember that He is worthy of our doing all we can do to bring Him our very best. And unlike getting ready for that special someone on a date, He actually did hang the moon!