This is why worship is work.
It can even be hard work.
It’s why worship has to be intentional and can never occur accidentally or unintentionally. (Imagine someone coming home from work or a ball game and exclaiming, “Guess what! While I was doing this other thing, I suddenly found myself worshiping. It was quite a surprise.”)
Each of us must decide to worship.
We choose worship.
We make up our minds to worship God in spite of ailments, noise, discomfort and ten thousand other distractions.
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).
Their circumstances were not exactly conducive to worship. Paul and Silas had been arrested and threatened by a mob, then beaten by the authorities and locked into stocks in the interior part of the jail. Their backs were open wounds. They were miserable and in no mood for fun and games.
Their surroundings were not worship-friendly.
The people around them were not welcoming and not participating.
They did not feel like worshiping.
They were not in the mood.
God must have seemed far away from them.
And yet, they worshiped.
They worshiped the living God by faith.
And God blessed. He heard them, He sent an angel with a jail-sized earthquake that busted the chains and burst the doors wide open. Then, He saved the jailer and his household.
God showed up when His children worshiped.
What’s keeping you from worshiping today? Two missionaries in a Philippian cell would be interested in hearing your answer.
When we enter the Lord’s house, one person and one only decides whether you will worship God today. Regardless of the performance of singers or the beauty of the sermon, regardless of the distractions around you or the ailments within you, you are the one who determines whether you will worship the living God on this day.
Decide to worship, friend.
“Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us” (Psalm 1231-2).
