5 Encouragements for Praising God this Sunday

Have you ever attended church on a Sunday morning and felt like you were just going through the motions while singing or even anxious for the service to end so that you could move on with your day? These next few encouragements are meant for us to be reminded of the God we serve and how we, transformed believers, can position ourselves in surrender to worship God.

Know the Reason Why You Praise

A soldier who remembers why he is on the battlefield is one who will likely fight with great courage. If we are soldiers in the Lord's army, we must remember the gospel and why we aim to bring Him glory and praise. The church has so much in common when we remember the truth of the gospel. If you and I have any good reason as believers to praise, it's because God has taken us as sinners and brought us from death to life. Does this mean your time of worship won't be challenging at times? Not necessarily. Even your pastor will have his moments on certain weeks, but when we recount the gospel, we remember God's goodness, which spurs us to praise Him. Therefore, take some intentional time this Sunday before you even enter the four walls of the sanctuary and remember how a holy God stepped out of heaven and died to save a sinner like you and me. As we read in Ephesians 2, our boast can only be in the Lord. A humbling thought indeed and an encouraging reminder to praise the Lord!

Prepare for Worship Before Sunday

If you are a parent, you have probably experienced this or something similar before. You lay your head down on the pillow, and the children are in bed early. Finally, you can get to bed after several long nights of not sleeping, and then it happens. What once was thought to be a great opportunity for a great night's rest turns into all the children waking up because you forgot to change the battery in the smoke detector, and now it's shouting, "low battery." Maybe you haven't seen this exactly but hold on as this illustration develops. You needed that good night of rest; you took care of the glaring need to get the children in bed but didn't set yourself up for success because of neglecting something as small as a 9-volt battery. Whether intentional or not, you missed out on a great night of rest.

The way we prepare for Sunday worship can often be similar. We recognize our need to be in church on Sunday and we take care of the big things like setting the alarm, but then we sabotage ourselves when we scroll Instagram entirely too long or decide that the sports game on the opposite coast is worth watching even though it is starting at a late hour. Yeah, you might still make it to church; the engine in your car may have carried you there, but the person in the driver’s seat only made it to church because Jesus took the wheel, in the words of Carrie Underwood. Even if you do make it to church on Sunday, are you just a warm body in a seat or are you present in mind, body, and spirit? What are some of the Saturday decisions that are keeping you from being fully engaged on Sunday or keeping you from being at church at all? I have news for you—your worship pastor wants you to be ready to sing praise from the first song of the morning. Psalm 98:4 says, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!" This is a challenging thing to do if you are gassed from a long weekend or short on sleep from avoidable late nights.

Engage Your Heart, Mind, and Soul

Have you ever seen an athlete go through the motions in a game? They may have shown up to the game, but you can tell they play with no conviction. The outcome of playing like this almost always culminates into mixed results. What about your time of praise on Sunday? Are you engaged in a way that echoes Psalm 103:1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!?” Every part of who you are, down to the fiber of your being, should clamor to worship the Lord with his people. We should be very careful not to allow ourselves to go into cruise control as we praise the Lord. Think about the lyrics you are singing. Are they biblical? If the lyrics you are singing are biblical, is it reaching to the deepest parts of your being and causing you to praise and rejoice? Don't allow a familiar melody to enter you and steal the blessing of being with God's people and testifying to who He is and what He has done. Pray to the Lord and ask him to help you stay engaged and not glaze over in worship this Sunday.

Don’t Take In Garbage Monday-Saturday

Here is a simple truth: You can’t take in garbage Monday-Saturday and then expect your heart to naturally bring Him glory on Sunday. In the modern world that we live in, just about everything is vying for our attention. We see all kinds of advertisements on the television, posted on billboards, scrolling our cell phones, through our favorite podcasts, etc. daily. All of these things are trying to put an inclination in us to buy something, go somewhere, and think a certain way. The honest truth is that most of the things we will encounter on any given day are void of biblical thinking.

What are you listening to? What are you watching? What are you thinking? Really, we should be asking the question, what am I putting in my heart and mind outside of church on Sunday? Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart because from it flows the springs of life. If we claim to be believers in a God who not only saves us but also transforms us, then why would we run back to the things that don't reflect His glory and work in us? Don't fall for the lie that you won't hinder your worship on Sunday when your Monday-Saturday looks like anything but a transformed life. Psalm 40 says He put a new song in my mouth. Let's live out the new song placed in us and lift praise to God Monday-Saturday. Just see how much more your heart will rejoice when praising Him on Sunday!

Worship Jesus and Engage With Others

No matter the musical style of your church, worship Jesus and engage in that with others. You may have sat through church this past week and thought, "Man, I wish they would have played ____ song." We all have preferences on what song we like to worship along with at church. Let's even go a step further; maybe the orchestra or worship team isn't the most proficient group in the world. You may be at a church that has many members to add to the team, or maybe you are in a one-church town that can only field a pianist and a singer. There are a thousand scenarios similar to the ones stated above. What God desires is not a raging debate on old hymns versus contemporary music or orchestras versus a worship team. What God desires is a unified church singing His praises. Colossians 3:15-16 says, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” When we gather, let's not forget the importance of worshipping the Lord and encouraging one another to do the same, even when our preferences don't perfectly match. Let us be thankful this Sunday that we have a wonderful God and a group of believers with whom to praise the Lord.

Written by Micah Meffen, the pastor of worship at Fellowship Church in southwest Florida

You can listen to the entire conversation with Micah Meffen on Episode 157 of the Text-Driven Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at www.textdriven.org/podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday, just in time for your morning commute.