Preparing your Soul to Meet with God & His People

What’s the goal of Sunday morning worship? Of course, this question can be answered in many different and equally helpful ways, but here’s one attempt at it: the goal of Sunday morning worship is to encounter God in worship, prayer, the Word, fellowship, and service. The goal of Sunday morning worship is to commune with our Father who is in heaven, and who, by amazing grace, has saved our souls and reconciled us to himself and promised us life and peace and joy in Christ. The goal of Sunday morning worship is to overflow with thankfulness to God such that we give ourselves to the love and service of others.

If, then, the goal of Sunday morning worship is to commune with God and overflow with love towards others, how should we prepare our souls to this end? Behind this question is an assumption that communing with God, even for people who love him and are called according to his purposes, is not automatic. Rather, we must learn to prepare our souls to meet with God, and with others who also love God.

Though I don’t always succeed at this, here’s what I try to do each week as I prepare my heart for worship: (1) I try to set some time aside on Saturday evenings to be in the Word and prayer. I ask God to reveal my sin, to prepare my heart for all aspects of the worship service, and to make me a servant of others while I’m there. I like praying for others because he helps me not to become self-centered in my worship. (2) I try to set aside a little time on Sunday morning to connect with God in private and to reiterate the things I prayed for on Saturday evening. This helps me to walk into the worship service with a “slightly warmed” heart, rather than a cold one that needs the first 15 or 30 minutes of the service to warm it up. (3) I attend the pre-service prayer meeting from 8:15-8:45 to call on the name of my Father along with others.

I hope you walk into every worship service expecting to commune with your Father! And I hope that you will join me in sowing seeds before each of those services so that your hope can be fulfilled.

Longing with you to commune with our Father,
Pastor Charlie