Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Saturday night at Lehman Avenue church of Christ in Bowling Green, Melvin Otey shared some tremendous thoughts on worship.  I will try to highlight some of his key points.

True worship is a balance of our hands, or actions, and our heart.  Worship includes the actions we take, the serving and doing, the acts of worship, the works of our hands. However, worship starts with the heart.  It doesn’t matter if all of our steps are right if our heart isn’t right. I Corinthians 14:25, “he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”

Our lives, as a whole, should be an offering to God.  Romans 12:1, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” This requires our complete submission, our consistent service.

We also have an act of corporate worship, a group of individuals coming together to worship.  We have people to coordinate the acts of worship.  But, every individual is responsible for their part. To be effective worship, we must all prepare ourselves for the presence of God: spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Spiritual preparation requires us to examine ourselves to be in the faith.  Proverbs 15:8 says, “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to Him.” Matthew 5:23-24, “if you are offering your gift at the alter and remember your brother has something against you…first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” We must take a look at ourselves spiritually.

Mental preparation requires us to be mentally prepared when we enter our time of worship.  Focus our minds and our hearts.  Take a look at the bulletin.  Review the lesson outline and the songs to be sung.  Read the topic scripture. 

We must be prepared physically for worship, as well.  We should not approach our thrice holy God (Isaiah 6:3) haphazardly.  We must prepare ourselves physically: get enough rest, eat and drink beforehand, use the restroom, silence our phones.  Our physical preparation allows us to focus mentally and spiritually.

Corporate worship is more dynamic than most people think.  It is a balance of the condition of our heart and activities of our hands.  We all must make sure we are prepared to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

Melissa and I had the good fortune to hear this lesson in person. Melvin’s lesson is available on YouTube at the Lehman Avenue channel if you would like to go and listen.