Preparing For Worship

This morning I read the daily devotional message out of Experiencing God Day By Day. The theme was preparing to enter God's Presence. Henry Blackaby's point was that it is never right to try to rush into God's Presence. We must be cleansed from our sins by confessing them, and we must have our hearts and minds set on being obedient to whatever He says to us. These principles apply to our preparations for worshiping together with our church family. If we try to worship with unconfessed sin in our hearts, we will not really get into God's Presence. If we are not sincerely submitted to hear and obey what He says, He will not waste His time speaking to us. Therefore, time in preparation is essential, if we want to have an intimate experience with God.

I pray that we all will make those types of preparations this evening and in the morning. Weekly worship is so important to keep our focus on the Lord. It only takes a few weeks to wander far from the Lord. Also, our daily time with Him is even more important, because that is where our personal relationship is strengthened. If we don't have a meaningful personal worship time each day, our weekly worship will not be very meaningful either. We must remember that it is not up to the music leaders or the preacher to get us into God's Presence. They are to lead us there, but they can't get us there by themselves. They take us to the door, and our preparations determine if we will enter in to have a personal time with the Lord, Himself.

Tomorrow, I intend to read Leviticus 7-9.