To pray without ceasing is a way of understanding our communion with God. We don’t always pray with our eyes closed and heads bowed. The people who say they don’t need to be in church to pray are right. You can pray anywhere at anytime. And learning to pray all the time is a delight to the soul.
Worship, too, is an ongoing wonder. Unfortunately, our sense of going to church may have warped our notions of worship. As if true worship really only happens in a building one hour, once a week. Not including announcements, of course.
Like with prayer, you don’t need to be in a sanctuary to participate in heaven’s worship. All liturgy is liturgy of the heart. So, it doesn’t have to be printed in the bulletin. Your less-than-perfect singing voice is your faith’s cantor. Use it often. Our corporate gatherings of worship and prayer direct our attention to the praise of God. After that, we also learn what it means to worship when we leave, too.
A.W. Tozer said it this way, “If you’re not worshiping God on Monday the way you did on Sunday, perhaps you’re not worshiping him at all.”
The psalmist said it this way, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Psalm 113:3). I guess you could say it’s 11am somewhere.
And another saint offered this prayer: Come Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
Instruments always need tuning. Your instrument needs tuning every time its played. Our hearts are instruments of praise. So, they need tuning everyday, too. Not so we can get our worship right. So that we can worship in spirit and truth. The worship we experience on Sundays gets us ready to worship the rest of the week. And the worship we experience the rest of the week gets us ready to worship on Sundays.
Stay blessed…john
