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How many of us slide into church on Sunday morning, and the first song is like a cold shower. What might we do to prepare the heart for worship? A Puritan has a few valuable suggestions.
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Think about it. If a big game is coming, you do a certain amount of mental prep. You might listen to sports talk radio, and see who is the underdog, which team has any crucial injuries. And your enthusiasm builds, so that by kickoff, you are pumped, you know what to expect, your head is in the game.
Consider now the worship of God. Most of us cruise into church without a clue of what may be happening. We haven't given it a thought, and though what follows may be wonderful, we are starting in first gear, and have to quickly get up to cruising speed.
Here is some advice on how to maximize our worship of God from a saint long ago. It is worth considering:
Prepare to meet thy God, O Christian!
Betake thyself to your chamber on the Saturday night, confess and bewail your unfaithfulness under the ordinances of God; ashamed and condemn yourself for your sins.
Entreat God to prepare your heart for, and assist it in, your religious performances.
Spend some time in consideration of the infinite majesty, holiness, jealously, and goodness of that God with whom you are to have to do in sacred duties.
Ponder the weight and importance of his holy ordinances. Meditate on the shortness of the time you have to enjoy Sabbaths in, and continue musing...till the fire burns.
No one can fully measure the potential gain by such forethoughts, how pleasant and profitable a Lord's day will be to you after such a preparation.
The oven of your heart thus baked in, as it were overnight, will be easily heated the next morning; the fire so well raked up when you went to bed, will be quickly kindled when when you rise. If thou would thus leave your heart with God on Saturday night, you will find it with him in the Lord's Day morning.
George Swinnoch quoted by J. I. Packer in A QUEST FOR GODLINESS page 257
Consider now the worship of God. Most of us cruise into church without a clue of what may be happening. We haven't given it a thought, and though what follows may be wonderful, we are starting in first gear, and have to quickly get up to cruising speed.
Here is some advice on how to maximize our worship of God from a saint long ago. It is worth considering:
Prepare to meet thy God, O Christian!
Betake thyself to your chamber on the Saturday night, confess and bewail your unfaithfulness under the ordinances of God; ashamed and condemn yourself for your sins.
Entreat God to prepare your heart for, and assist it in, your religious performances.
Spend some time in consideration of the infinite majesty, holiness, jealously, and goodness of that God with whom you are to have to do in sacred duties.
Ponder the weight and importance of his holy ordinances. Meditate on the shortness of the time you have to enjoy Sabbaths in, and continue musing...till the fire burns.
No one can fully measure the potential gain by such forethoughts, how pleasant and profitable a Lord's day will be to you after such a preparation.
The oven of your heart thus baked in, as it were overnight, will be easily heated the next morning; the fire so well raked up when you went to bed, will be quickly kindled when when you rise. If thou would thus leave your heart with God on Saturday night, you will find it with him in the Lord's Day morning.
George Swinnoch quoted by J. I. Packer in A QUEST FOR GODLINESS page 257
