Daily devotion – Sunday!
Sunday Gathering — A Blessing
It is 7:00am on Sunday morning, and shortly I will be heading down to church for another blessed Sunday gathering. As I prepare, I wonder: What awaits us today? What is the Lord going to impress upon our hearts?
Will there be repentance? Thanksgiving? A fresh work of the Holy Spirit? Or, sadly, could we miss what God has for us because our hearts are not prepared to receive?
How important it is that we prepare our hearts as we gather with God’s people—His Church, the living organism of which Christ is the Head. It is this very gathering of believers that one day Jesus will call up to meet Him in glory!
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 reminds us:
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout… and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them… to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Will there be hungry hearts today, eager to hear the Word of God? Will there be prodigals returning at last after living desperately in a lost and lonely world?
And what of the children? They gather with joy and excitement. How much notice will they take of their parents as they worship? Will they see a genuine devotion to God that they too will one day model, or will they see indifference?
The early Church, filled with the wonder and power of the Holy Spirit, met together regularly. They celebrated the new life they had received in Christ and passionately lived out their devotion to the One who had suffered, died, risen again, and washed away all their sins.
Again this Sunday, many will serve. The regular faithful servants who have developed such a wonderful devotion to the saints here at Calvary will quietly go about their ministries. But when the service is over, the doors are closed, and we return to our homes, what will be the result in the lives and hearts of those who gathered?
David gives us his answer in a song:
Psalm 122:1
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
For many believers around the world, gathering with other Christians brings the risk of persecution—even death. In other places, believers must meet secretly, hidden away from those who would do them harm.
How blessed we are to gather freely!
Psalm 84:10
“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
So let us be glad when Sunday comes. Let us prepare our hearts, come with expectation, worship with sincerity, serve with joy, and listen carefully for what the Lord wants to say.
I pray, as you read this, that your Sunday gathering was truly as the psalmist declared:
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”