Growing up, getting ready to go to church on Sunday morning was almost always a harried experience. Everyone needed to get their showers in, put their good church clothes on, be sure not to spill breakfast on them, and be out the door in time for Sunday school. Given that my mom was the poster child for a type A personality, everyone needed to look perfect – she always set out what clothes my father needed to put on-and when things didn’t go as planned, which happened more often than not, the yelling would begin. It would continue in the car on the way to church, and not stop until we jumped out of the car and pranced into church to our respective classes. Not exactly the mind-set to worship. Don’t get me wrong, my Mom loved the Lord, she just got caught up with being the perfect family on Sunday.
So how should we prepare for worship? First off, what do I mean by worship? Do we just worship at church on Sunday morning? The answer is a resounding, “no!” That is, worship should not be separated from our everyday activities. There certainly is the time we put aside to worship God with other believers at church. However, we are to worship God through our everyday lives.
Lydia
I think Lydia shows us a working practice of everyday worship. There is not a lot found in the Bible about Lydia, but what is there, gives us a picture of a woman who loved God and His son Jesus. She is mentioned in Acts 16:14-15 & 40. “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us.”
What we do know about Lydia from the passage above is that she must have been a woman of means because she sold purple fabric which was expensive and she owned a household. We don’t know if she had children or was married, but most likely her household included servants. If she had been married, she probably would not have been when she met Paul as the passage talks about the household belonging to her, and not her husband. Since the passage mentions that she was a seller of purple, she was a business woman and would have had contact with the very wealthy of society as they were the only clientele who could afford the purple fabric. Her status was pretty impressive, but she didn’t rely on her reputation, she knew she needed to depend on God.
Indeed, Lydia was worshipping God by the river with other women when Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke joined the meeting. Now comes the amazing part of the story. “[Lydia] was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” In other words, Lydia came to the meeting to worship and learn from God. Being a businesswoman, she could have had her head full of business, and just gone to the meeting out of habit, or just for show. However, she was listening to Paul, she was doing her part, and then God steps in and does His part – He opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message about Jesus. Then Lydia, responding to God, took action and was baptized along with her household, accepting the salvation of Jesus Christ. But that wasn’t the final step, she opened her house up for Paul and his fellow workers to stay with her. Then they obviously were hemming and hawing about it when the scripture says, “and she prevailed upon us.” In other words, Lydia’s businesswoman side kicked in and she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and convinced them to stay at her home.
Preparation
Let’s take what we know of Lydia’s life as an example to live a life of worship. First, we need to prepare for worship. Our hearts need to be focused on God in everything we do. We can only do this if we start our day out talking with God and running our daily plan past Him. I Thessalonians 5:17 says we are to pray without ceasing. If prayer is to be part of our daily worship of God, then we need to start out the day praying. Praying to God readies our hearts to listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the day, as we get ready to go to work, are at work, with our interactions with our families and friends, and our study time with God. We should ask God every morning, and particularly when we are studying His Word, to open our hearts to respond to what He is telling us. Remember, God speaks through the Bible, the Holy Spirit, through other believers, situations, and even puts angels in our paths at times. But it is important for us to prepare our hearts to be opened by God, so that we can pass on His good message of salvation to others who are listening like Lydia was.
Besides prayer, we are fortunate enough in America to have good Christian radio to listen to while we are driving. This is also a way of preparing for worship as you go through the day, and especially on your drive to your weekly church service.
I hope that all of you seek the peace and joy of God as you prepare to live a life of worship each day.
This blog has presented just a few ways to prepare for worship in our day to day activities. I would love to hear how you prepare yourself for worship. Please share your ideas in the comment box.
Photo credit: “Women Spirit Rising” by Mary Southard
