Preparing for Worship – Your Heart

Life is hard and we grow weary. If we were to all be completely open and brutally honest there are just times in our life when we don’t feel like worshipping. We want to sleep in. The toddler is crabby and restless and trying to keep them quiet during yet another service is just exhausting. But we are commanded to worship and I think, maybe for mothers more than anyone else, preparing for worship is a must.

But how can we prepare for worship with our lives already so full to overflowing even? Life is all about choices and priorities, even as adults. Sometimes it is a matter of letting something go so that you have more free time on Saturday evening to prepare or maybe it is just finding the “how” to prepare that you are struggling with. Here are my thoughts and ideas on ways to start preparing for worship.

I love music and use it often to quiet my spirit after a long busy week to prepare for our worship service on Sunday morning. I sing along as I bathe the children and prepare food for the following day. I choose songs that are peaceful but that speak of God’s love and power and forgiveness. These reminders help me to realize yet again that God loves me even when I feel unloved and He cares about my needs and desires even when I feel like no one else notices.

This is the time each week I strive to quiet my spirit, I take slow deep breathes, and I pull my children close to speak God’s Word into their hearts. I truly desire for them to know the importance of preparing for worship. To know what true fellowship and edification of the believer is, and to desire a heart that is completely open and poured out before the Throne of God in worship. I pray over them and for them and then my heart and mind are moved to other things.

I begin to think of those that I will gather together to worship with. I pray for them. For their struggles, their heartaches, and their burdens. And this is why church needs to be so much more than lessons, services, and handshakes. Church, true fellowship, draws believers together intimately. They should laugh together, and pray together. They should cry together, and work together.  Praying for the members of my church is a huge part of preparing for worship. It is difficult, if not impossible, to hold resentment or strive against someone for whom you spent time in prayer.

There are many ways, aspects, and parts to preparing for worship. We have talked about using Scripture, and now preparing our hearts, next up will be preparing our homes.