Dear Explorer,
Read Luke 18:9-14
Ken Medema wrote a song about these verses. It's called “Mr. Simon.” In it he depicted Mr. Simon as a regular church attendee who proudly went through his Sunday morning routine. The other he depicted as a man who sneaked in, sat on the back pew, and sat crying and softly begging God to have mercy on him. The final line in this song is:
“Two men went into the church upon that Sunday morn.
One left slightly wrinkled, the other left reborn!”
I wonder what would happen if on Sunday morning each one of Jesus' followers would prepare their hearts to worship and go expecting God to work in amazing ways.
There are a lot of things you can do to better prepare your heart for worship. My Daddy always said that God gave us Saturday nights to prepare for Sundays! He used to polish our shoes and set out our clothes on Saturday night so that we would be able to dress quickly on Sunday morning.
The Jewish people had a special way of preparing to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Since Solomon's temple was built on top of a large hill, they sang special songs as they began to climb the hill up to the temple. Some of them are recorded in Psalms 120-134. They are called Songs of Ascent.
David and I selected 2 songs that we sing every Sunday morning in the car on our way to church to prepare our hearts for worship. Our two children sang them with us just as soon as they were old enough to talk.
What do you do to prepare your heart for worship or what could you begin doing?
How do you define worship?
I define it as a time when I realize how BIG God is and how very tiny I am. Worship helps me to see myself the way God sees me and helps me to see God the way He really is.
When we have truly worshipped, can there be any self-righteousness (belief that we are better than someone else) in us?