Read:
Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;tremble before him, all the earth.Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;he will judge the peoples with equity.Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;let the sea resound, and all that is in it.Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,he comes to judge the earth.He will judge the world in righteousnessand the peoples in his faithfulness.
~Psalm 96:7-13 (NIV)
Consider:
Our God is simply amazing! Words seem inadequate to describe how wonderful He is! In the NLT version of verse 8, the psalmist calls us to “recognize that the LORD is glorious and strong. Give to the LORD the glory he deserves!” I’m not sure how well we do this at times. God deserves our glory and honor because of who He is. This scripture instructs us to “bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor.” But too often we enter into His house with so many other things on our minds. We’re not thinking about how glorious and strong our Lord is. We haven’t prepared our offering in advance, whether our offering is a monetary tithe or the offering of our hearts in worship.
Maybe we should be a little more mindful of the way we approach our Lord? For some of us, we might need to change our “get ready for church” routine. Instead of rushing out the door in a mad hurry to get to church on time, stressed with our spouses or children or even ourselves, maybe we need to start “church” before we leave our homes. What would it look like if we set a reminder for an hour or so before we need to leave and took that time to sit quietly? Maybe listen to some worship music or pray, either by ourselves, with our spouse, or as a family? Or your new preparation routine might look completely different from this. It doesn’t matter how you decide to prepare your hearts and offerings, what matters is that you prepare in advance and offer them with a grateful heart.
Let’s take some time to decide in advance what we want to offer to God. Let’s do our best to prepare our hearts and my minds so that when we come before Him, we give Him the honor and glory He deserves.
Breathe:
Breathe in His love…exhale all your struggles…
Spend time this weekend before you attend church preparing your heart to come before the Lord with an attitude of worship and gratefulness! God is inviting you to “…bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”
Journal:
- What does your “get ready for church” routine normally look like?
- Does your current routine allow you to arrive at church with an attitude of worship and with a grateful heart?
- What one thing can you do before this weekend to help prepare your offering and heart before you arrive to worship the Lord?
Pray:
We praise you Lord, because of Your glory and strength. Forgive us for the times that we come before You unprepared~unprepared with our offerings to You and unprepared for our worship of You. Our lack of preparedness can appear as a lack of importance. But You are important to us! Help us show our honor for who You are by preparing our hearts and minds in advance of our worship of You. In Jesus name we pray~Amen.
Comment:
Share below any suggestions you have to help prepare our offerings and hearts for worship.