God In Our Sundays

I think we've probably all had that occasion where we've been in a church meeting and God has clearly been present and dealing with people. Times when the overflow of people's thankful hearts break the usual pattern of our service, and a time of praise and gratitude to an amazing, gracious, and loving God bursts out like a Geyser erupts water.

We we're blessed enough last Sunday to have a time like this. After the preaching had finished and the last song had been sung, a true reverence and stillness filled the room. At the sound of silence my heart felt that people were pressing into God, they weren't ready for this time to stop. Following this, people started to pray out to God, thanking and praising Him for His forgiveness and for His love and mercy. Whilst some people were doing this, others quietly wept, convicted by sin yet overwhelmed by grace. It visually demonstrated Romans 5 v 20 "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more"

My experience from last Sunday has stuck with me throughout the whole week. God is phenomenally gracious when He visits us like that. However, it got me to thinking about how we prepare for corporate worship.

Let me make it clear right now that I don't believe there's this magic formula or some sort of special sequence of events that you have to go through to experience a particular time of blessing and closeness to God. I believe God is just adding goodness to His goodness when He allows this to happen. But it does beg the question, am I preparing as well as I can to meet with God on a Sunday? Usually, if I'm honest, the answer is a gigantic NO!

8:00 - Alarm goes off

8:30 - I actually get out of bed

9:00 - Washed and dressed

9:30 - Breakfast and Coffee finished

9:45 - Teeth brushed hair....well presentable(ish)

10:00 - Load car up for Church

10:15 - Arrive at Church

I have had such little regard for God in my preparation on a Sunday. I haven't talked with Him I haven't studied The Word, I haven't even prayed that He would visit us in a special way in church. So how can I expect Him to? I am truly convicted this week that if we, if I spent more time on a Sunday praying expectant prayers for God to make His presence felt in our service, that the only effects would be positive ones. At the very least I would have talked with my Dad, my King and my God and would have a closer relationship with Him. But it is conceivable that experiences and blessings like last Sunday could become more frequent if I turned to God and pleaded with Him for it. 

Please, join with me in this. Whatever church you're in, get up 20 minutes earlier, or have breakfast and coffee whilst praying, and pray for God to truly bless and reveal Himself in an amazing way in our services. Challenge me on a Sunday and ask me if I've done this.

Wouldn't it be great if people looked into our churches and said "that's the church where God is. I want what they have"?