Colossians 3:23-24 (King James Version)
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord,
and not unto men; 24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of
the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
I just finished watching the USA women’s volleyball game against
Korea. It was fun to watch each of the players giving their all on every play. I
have always loved volleyball either watching it or playing it.
Over the years I have played volleyball at different
levels. When you play “pickup games”
where people just kind of join your team as they walk in, you never know who
you will get or what skill level you will find.
Over the years I have noticed a couple kinds of people in
sports. Those who give it their all and those who just wait for the ball to
come to them.
The first kind, those who give it their all are ones who
seek to get in the game, to play with all of their ability and not hold back. By
playing with all they have they get a lot more out of the game. They are the
ones you can count on to be “in the game.”
The other kind, those who just wait passively, really
ruin the game. They just don’t have their heart in the game. They just show up.
And then they are disappointed when they don’t get any enjoyment out of the
game.
They generally don’t come back every week.
Let’s take a moment and compare our volleyball experience
with our own worship experience.
Did you know that people come to worship with the same
kind of attitudes?
Some folks think that somehow they will experience
worship if they just show up. They don’t necessarily prepare for the morning,
they come without a sense of expectation, and seem to think that somehow God is
happy to see that they made it to His house.
But by thinking worship will just “happen” to them, they
never really experience it. They never get into it, they never give themselves
or put themselves into the service.
As a result, they go away empty and wonder why.
But the others, who give it their all…what do they
experience?
They experience God Himself. They get up on Sunday
morning (and just about every morning for that matter) and look for God. They
are hungry for God. They don’t just want “a little bit of God” but they want
all of Him.
And as a consequence, they enter their Sunday experience
with a sense of “giving all of themselves” to God.
Which are you? Do you go to worship with a hunger for God
or do you just “shown up” hoping that you will experience worship?
Dear Lord, we pray that we would go to worship with the
right motives. We pray that we would give ourselves to You. Help us to desire
You above anything. In Jesus Name. Amen.
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