Select a passage of Scripture, meditate on it and pray it back to God in your own words. You could even do this with a friend. Meditation is usually associated with images of eastern mystics chanting a meaningless mantra to empty their minds. Bible meditation fills the mind with God through concentration on his Word.
Psalm 1 begins with a promise of blessing for anyone who meditates on the Scriptures. In Jesus, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, the apostle John wrote. The written Word and the living Word are inseparable.
Ask this question: Have you ever meditated on Bible passages and prayed them to God as a means of worship? The beauty of worship occurs in community with other like-minded believers.
There is a depth and strength that comes when believers join together in worship, much like the Israelites did around Jericho and like Paul and Silas did in prison.
In 1 Corinthians , Paul explains aspects of orderly worship. While orderly worship is not the immediate topic here, this scripture shows the importance of preparing for worship. The one singing needs to select the song, practice and prepare his or her heart before the service begins. Likewise, the one teaching needs to prepare to receive and deliver the message before the service. We should all come to the house of worship prepared—whether you are singing, teaching, preaching, speaking, prophesying, serving or receiving.
So, how do you prepare for worship on Sunday? You prepare by getting your heart ready. Use the night before or early morning before the service to seek the Lord by practicing private worship, reading the Bible and praying. Fix your thoughts on the truth of Jesus and all He has done for you.
Pray for the service and ask the Lord to help you receive from Him. You may even want to set aside a special time in your schedule to prepare for weekly worship. For some, expressing themselves in worship can be uncomfortable, especially if they are new Christians. At first I resisted the training because I met people who spent so much time rebuking the devil.
I thought they were giving the devil too much attention. Several years ago when I was doing a worship event in a poor neighborhood in Zambia, I sensed a darkness all around us—poverty, violence, abuse, hopelessness, hunger. We worshiped the Lord every night for more than an hour before we felt we could even begin to present the Gospel.
Only then did we sense a real breakthrough in the spirit, and we saw hundreds come to Christ. Through that event and others like it, I came to realize that worship is how we allow God to fight our battles for us. You may be familiar with the story of Jehoshaphat. What a strange battle plan—but the result was that the Lord won the battle for them! There is something inherent in the act of worship that enables us to encounter the power of God like nothing else.
The gospel of Jesus that now gives you new desires produces in you the desire to worship God rightly. We come to know God through the gospel and our hearts turn to God in worship.
As the Israelites would turn their worship from God to the false gods and idols around them, we today are prone to make those same mistakes. We can turn from worshipping God to worshipping money, sex, power, self, security, and many other things in our life that take our eyes off God.
Biblical Worship. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, - Hebrews We worship in spirit and in truth, and we worship with reverence.
As followers of Jesus, we understand that we must worship the one true God the way he commands us to worship him. We do not create our own understanding and practice of worship, but we worship the way God commands us to.
Worship is not limited to the singing on Sunday mornings or during the week when you are listening to your favorite Christian artist, but it is your whole life devoted to bringing honor and glory to God. We do not worship on Sunday, and Monday to Saturday take a break from worship. Worship must be lived out every moment of every day through the things the Lord has called us to do for Him because that is the true worship the Lord asks of us.
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