As Christians grow, the more they look forward to Sunday. They think about Sunday worship throughout the week while at work and home. On Saturday night, they prepare their clothes, fill their gas tanks, and set aside their contribution so that in the morning they can “Set their minds on things above…” (Col 3:2). When morning comes, these Christians rise early to read their Bible and to listen to and sing hymns to further prepare their minds for worship. They then load up the car with their family with time to spare so that they can arrive early in order to visit with others. While driving, they play or sing Christian music and have conversations about God and his word in order to stimulate their appetite for the spiritual feast they are about to receive from their teachers. When they finally arrive, they smile and greet as many people as they can before class. During class they passionately take detailed notes, so that they can study them throughout the week. During the service, these Christians sing and make melody, not only with their mouths, but with their hearts by pondering the truths that they sang. Then they follow along with the scripture reading and think about its significance and why they read it every Sunday before communion. When they partake of the bread and of the cup, they reflect either joyfully or solemnly over the joy that Christ has given us through his death, or about the suffering and shame Christ had to endure for our sins. During the sermon, these Christians take notes and make as many applications to their life as they can so that they can serve the Lord with a full heart throughout the week. No matter how boring and dry the sermon may seem to others, the delight of hearing God’s word fills their heart with joy. As the preacher wraps up the sermon, they check the clock, not to see how long he went, but to see if the time was really up because of how fast it seemed to pass by. During the invitation they hope and pray someone comes forward so that they can have a new brother or sister in Christ. After the closing prayer they find the visitors before they leave in order to get to know them better, hoping to see them next week. Once these Christians leave, they feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and excited because they get to return that evening for a bible study.

While this is an idealized version of what Christians should be like on Sunday morning, I hope that it can help us reflect on how we can be more intentional about our worship. Let us pray that we can be focused less on distractions and things out of our control and focus more on the blessing of coming together to worship God!