“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. As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.” Eccl 5:2-3
The Scriptures and the study of them are an important part of worship. Study and meditation reflect on what God has to tell us and what we can learn from the Word of God. From the verses that call us to worship, it is great to remind ourselves of the greatness of grandeur of God. We are blessed to reflect on His character as revealed in the Word. He is Holy. There is nothing like knowing Him. He is making Himself known to you and me.
God is our Creator. He is not our errand boy, where we command the Lord around. We need to reflect on His person and see Him as He really is and see ourselves as we really are - sinners saved by grace. We need to go into the house of God with receptive attitudes and gaze upon His presence, to be rebuked for our pretense and hypocrisy and superficiality and religiosity.
We are foolish mortals. He is God. The joy of worship is that this great God desires we be blessed by meeting with Him, and when we do it, it is awesome and the desire to know Him more grows.
We not only reflect on His glory, but reflect on man's situation. Before we can become what we want to be there must be a healing of things that stand in the way between us and the Lord. When Isaiah saw the presence of the Lord, His response was "Woe is me I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Isn't it interesting that this good man is immediately convicted of his mouth. Sin must come from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. That is only possible when we are open to Him and realize, that compared to His purity, we are selfish and prideful. We seek our ways and not His ways. We want our pleasures more than His pleasure.
Prayer is not to change God, but to change us. More than confessions and reflection in prayer is to praise, to make our requests known to God, to thank Him for His goodness to us. Prayer begins by quieting ourselves before the Lord not only to listen, but to reflect. As the Spirit of God brings things to mind, our reflection turns into praise and prayer. We set ourselves aside from our regular activities to gaze upon His beauty and reflect on Him, ourselves, and others from a divine perspective.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for my pretense, hypocrisy, superficiality and religiosity. "Have your own way Lord, have your own way. Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after your will, while I am waiting, yielded and still."
