Enter His gates with thanksgiving. And His courts with praise.
Psalm 100:4 (NASB)
Scripture: Psalm 100
Corporate worship is very important in the life of a believer. However, it is very easy to just skip that. This devotion looks at why it is important to not only show up for corporate worship but also to really worship while we are there.
It is so easy to get caught up in this world. We can think up a number of good excuses to not go to church on Sunday: I work six days for the Lord, even He took one day off to rest; I don’t want to be around that many people; I need to sleep.
But we convince ourselves to get up anyway, eat our breakfast and go to church even though we really would rather be home eating breakfast in bed and reading. But are we really worshiping?
Yes, we are in church; but no, we aren’t really there. We sit through the worship service mentally preparing the dinner for the day, comparing the pitching staffs of the Cardinals and the Cubs [or insert your team and its rival] and basically not paying attention.
I wonder if the Lord has fun listening to our itinerary. He knows our every thought. Maybe all the other worshipers think we are listening, but God knows the truth.
Think of how much it must hurt Him — God, the creator of the universe. He made this beautiful world for us to live in. He made each star up in the sky and each mountain that towers over us.
And God made man — a living human being who can laugh and grow. We can feel pain, and we can love others. Why did God make man? To worship Him.
Our main goal in life should be to worship God. We would be nothing without Him. He gives us our salvation free of charge.
The only thing He really asks us to do is worship Him. And there we sit on Sunday morning, thinking of food, fun and games. Some worship. But just wait.
What we must remember is those Sunday services are preparing us for our home in heaven. When we get to heaven, it will be a PraiseFest 24/7, not just one hour. This is just a trial run for when we get to heaven.
We are at a place where God can do so much for us in our lives today, not just when we get to heaven. He can let us feel His presence when we had felt alone during the week. He can give us comfort when we had felt our ship was sinking at our jobs. He can encourage us when even yesterday we had considered throwing in the towel. He can plant in our minds the solutions to problems for which we’d been looking.
God is willing to help us, but we have to come to Him. Don’t you think God really wants it that way? He doesn’t force Himself on us. He is more interested in building a relationship with us.
God could do so much for us in that hour — if we would just let Him. Oh, what we are missing by not letting Him fill our hearts and minds during that time! What happens in that hour could affect our whole life.
So, worship God for an hour? Yes, God wants us to gather together and worship Him for an hour. Worship God for a lifetime? YES!! God gives us that hour to worship together to prepare ourselves for worshiping Him for a lifetime and on through eternity.
Gracious Heavenly Father. You are the creator of all things. You have made this beautiful world for us to live in. However, we allow the worries of this world to crowd into the time set apart to worship You. Forgive us, Father. Help us to rekindle the desire to want to listen to Your messenger telling us of Your Word. Use this time to reveal Your Will to us. Flood us with Your sweet peace. Use these words to prepare us for our daily walk of life and our lives when we will walk with You. Amen.
What do you think? Have you had a time when you really didn’t want to go to church, but you went anyway and was really blessed? Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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