How to Come Ready

Most of what shapes your worship on Sunday morning happens before Sunday morning.

If you arrive at the gathering exhausted, distracted, and unprepared, you will get less from it. Not because God is stingy, but because you brought less. A heart prepared receives more. A heart prepared brings more to give.

Here is a simple shape for the week leading up to the Lord's Day.

Saturday evening.

Look at the texts for tomorrow if you can. Slow down. Get the house ready. Get yourself to bed at a sane hour. The hour before Sunday morning is shaped by the hour before Saturday night.

If you have children, do the work the night before. Lay out the clothes. Pack the bag. Pray with them before bed. Sunday morning is not the time to start the work of getting to church.

Sunday morning.

Pray before you walk into the building. Ask the Lord to meet you. Come a few minutes early. Greet someone. Take a breath. You are not coming to a performance. You are coming home.

During the service.

Sing the songs even when you do not feel like singing. Confess your sin out loud with the congregation even when you have not been thinking about it. Open your Bible during the reading. Take notes during the sermon if it helps you. Eat the bread and drink the cup with reverence when it is offered. Receive the benediction as the blessing it is.

After the benediction.

Linger.

Most of the work the Spirit does in a Mayflower service happens in the conversations after the benediction. Do not run to the parking lot. Stay. Talk. Pray for someone. Get prayed for.

This is part of the worship.

You will not do all of this every Sunday. None of us do. But aim for it.

Worship is the shape of a life, not a checklist for a morning.