When You Go Into The House Of God

When You Go Into The House Of God

In Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 Solomon offers words of wisdom needed by Christians in our day. "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few."

A most difficult lesson for 21st century people is how to offer acceptable worship to the Creator. The author of Hebrews wrote, "offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:28-29). We need to write these words on our hearts and keep them ever before us when we come to the house of God for worship.

Reverence means "honor or respect felt or shown, Deference, esp: profound adoring, awed respect." Awe is defined "a profound and reverent fear inspired by deity. Abashed fear inspired by authority or power. Fearful veneration inspired b y something sacred or mysterious. A reverent wonder tinged with fear inspired by the sublime."

These definitions of these two words tell us the following about our worship:

There is a seriousness about worshiping God.

There must be reverence and respect when we approach Him.

There must be joy, but never foolishness or silliness in our hearts and conduct.

There must be obedience to his instruction when we worship (I Sam. 15:22).

There must be a hush of quietness (Hab. 2:20; Ps. 46:10).

Our songs must be joyful, but to please him, not ourselves.

Our prayers must be full of praise and thanksgiving, not selfish begging (Ps. 69:30). .

Our worship must include a gift of gratitude to our God.

Our dress and demeanor should reflect the fact that we are standing in the presence of Almighty God (Ps. 96:9).

There must be thoughtfulness in our worship. We cannot worship God accidently or unconsciously. Robots cannot worship. We worship with both our mind and our heart (I Cor. 14:15).

Worship is never irrational or foolish. God speaks to our intellects through His Word. With our minds and hearts we worship him. Wild, unbridled emotion is not the worship in spirit and in truth that God expects of us (John 4:24)

There must be consideration for our neighbor when we worship. They need to understand what we are doing and why. We must remember that what we say and do may lead them to salvation or it may turn them away (I Cor. 14:23-24)!

We must draw near to God with clean hands and pure hearts (Jas. 4:8). By this, God expects us to be clean in our conduct, honest and upright in our lives and sincere in our motives.

We must have a forgiving spirit if we expect God to accept our worship (Matt. 6:12, 15). A grudge in the heart can nullify our worship.

We must be at peace with our fellow man. Any wrongs toward others must be righted if we hope to receive God's blessing (Matt. 5:23-24).

May each brother who leads us and each one who participates in worship remember these sacred truths as we worship the great and almighty Jehovah, creator, sustainer and judge of humanity. We dare not offer the sacrifice of fools!

Sincerely,

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