It’s no doubt rather late in the evening for most of you readers to think about preparing for Sunday worship. You’re most likely doing some serious preparation right now by getting some sleep (and that is what my wise and weary husband is doing). But here are some thoughts anyway, and maybe you can apply them next week.
Prayer is always a good way to prepare for Sunday. So here are some suggestions.
Pray for your pastor. In fact, you can start praying for your pastor earlier in the week. My husband prepares his sermon on Wednesday, so you might find out when your pastor is working on his sermon, and make a point of praying for him that day.
Pray for those who are directly involved in the worship service: the music minister, the choir, the musicians, and for those who lead the congregation in prayer.
Pray for those behind the scenes: those who are preparing and serving the Lord’s Supper, the ones who are doing the set-up or clean-up, and for those who help with the sound system or who print the bulletins each week.
Pray for the congregation. Pray for the parents who are busy getting their children ready to worship the Lord. Pray for the moms and dads who will spend a good portion of the service in the cry room. They need our prayers! Pray that all the congregation will be spiritually as well as physically prepared to worship God robustly.
We are made to worship God. We are at our best when we are worshiping Him. What better thing can a creature do than worship the Creator? And that worship tunes us, re-sets us, straightens us out, and makes us fit to go back out into the world for another week. We had better also pray that our worship, however feeble and distracted, will glorify and bless our Creator God, and make us better creatures, more fit to worship Him next week.
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This is really good and wise counsel, thank you!
Over the years I’ve really come to appreciate sleep. I’m much more likely now to go to bed when I’m tired. I used to short myself, but sleep is a rejuvinating blessing that I’ve come to appreciate.
Do think of adding encouraging words to your musicians. They spend hours practicing and if nobody says anything about their contribution, it sort of takes the wind out of their sails.
As a pianist, I have invested thousands of hours and dollars in a skill I share for free. Just a kind word keeps me going week to week. Instrumentalists are gifted – and sort of cursed. It’s that musician’s temperament. Giving life to music requires emotional involvement which makes us a little sensitive.
We offer our talent to God – but we live among His people and we need their encouragement.