Blog
Coming to church full
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I'm in the midst of a paradigm shift this week concerning worship. For several years I've been coming to church very thirsty for the Lord. It can be an actual physical sensation. But even though our worship times are wonderful, the sermons stimulating and the fellowship sweet, I find myself still very thirsty. It's even worse if I'm one of the worship team members up front. The need to concentrate musically distracts me from engaging completely in worshiping. I was starting to think that the satisfaction of this thirst for the Lord does not happen until we get to heaven. But a constant state of thirst is not healthy! I consider it a form of anxiety, and we are called to "be anxious about nothing."
Our worship team was talking about this one time and our keyboardist said, because of the necessary distractions of being up front leading, we can't count on Sunday morning to meet our own spiritual need to worship. She said, "You have to have worshiped before coming." That got me thinking.
A couple weeks later, our pastor said it must be difficult to lead a congregation in worship when many are engaging the Lord for the first time all week. He said we need to be worshiping throughout the week so when we come together on Sundays, our corporate praises are overflow from full hearts.
So this week some of this is coming into focus. I used to think that coming to church thirsty was good. And I do still believe God wants us to be eager for Him. But now, I'm thinking I want to come to church full: full of Him, full of a week of worshiping Him in the midst of life, full of delight in His world, His Word and His ways, full of thanksgiving. I'm not exactly sure how this all works, but it's something I want to pursue in prayer. "Lord, I want to be full of You...so full that praises pour out to You during the week. Then let our churches' praises come together on Sunday in a glorious overflow."
Our worship team was talking about this one time and our keyboardist said, because of the necessary distractions of being up front leading, we can't count on Sunday morning to meet our own spiritual need to worship. She said, "You have to have worshiped before coming." That got me thinking.
A couple weeks later, our pastor said it must be difficult to lead a congregation in worship when many are engaging the Lord for the first time all week. He said we need to be worshiping throughout the week so when we come together on Sundays, our corporate praises are overflow from full hearts.
So this week some of this is coming into focus. I used to think that coming to church thirsty was good. And I do still believe God wants us to be eager for Him. But now, I'm thinking I want to come to church full: full of Him, full of a week of worshiping Him in the midst of life, full of delight in His world, His Word and His ways, full of thanksgiving. I'm not exactly sure how this all works, but it's something I want to pursue in prayer. "Lord, I want to be full of You...so full that praises pour out to You during the week. Then let our churches' praises come together on Sunday in a glorious overflow."
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