“Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1 The Amplified Bible)
I’m just going to assume you will attend church this morning, face-to face in the assembly of the saints, or if your circumstances don’t allow you to attend physically, I assume you will tune in to your church service virtually.
So, I will make this meditation short, serious, and scripturally based. The opening verse comes from The Book of Ecclesiastes. The Greek equivalent for Ecclesiastes is “preacher.” I suggest you take the advice of the preacher as you attend worship today: (1) Guard or watch your step as you enter into the special presence of the Lord. Don’t step in, merely out of habit, but step in willingly and open, so that you will step out better. (2) Focus on what you are doing and why you are doing it, being sure that you are not attending to meet somebody else’s expectation. Focus on the fact that you are going to hear s specific message from on high, sent though a specific messenger, for a specific purpose, to a specific people. (3) Draw near to listen! As one translation says, “Enter to learn.” (4) Don’t just give a mindless sacrifice of your time, talent, and treasure, but have your mind stayed on the Lord in all that you present to Him!
Let me add another piece of advice. Expect to come out better than when you went in! Ask the man with the crippled hand in the closing verses if you need a little proof that this can happen when you are in the special presence of the Lord. Have a great worship experience this morning! Be blessed!
“On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eyes on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath violation. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand: “Get up and stand here before us.” He did. Then Jesus addressed them, “Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?” He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new!” (Luke 6:6-11 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King