As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Ecclesiastes 5:1
We prepare for a lot of things in life. We prepare for important meetings, plan vacations, dinner with friends, and so much more. After all, no one wants to feel unprepared if they can help it. However, while most of us could make a long list of the things in our lives that we prepare for, there is one thing that many of us forget to prepare for: worshiping God.
Ecclesiastes 5 teaches us the importance of preparing our hearts to worship God. The writer of this book gives instructions to readers: “As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut” (verse 1). This is a call to enter the church to worship carefully and listen to what God might be saying to us. We can only approach worship and listen carefully when we are talking less and listening more. The instruction in this chapter of Ecclesiastes continues, “It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God” (verse 2). Now, the writer explains here that our worship should be intentional and thoughtful. When we enter the church, we are called to enter purposefully, remembering why we are at church. This is why the writer of Ecclesiastes continues saying, “After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth” (verse 2). God is much greater and bigger than anything else we think about or imagine. Because of this, we are to approach His church carefully, preparing our hearts.
Do you often prepare your heart to worship God when you think about your own life? Do you come to church intentionally and thoughtfully, ready to hear from the Lord? After all, He is God, the Creator of everything, and deserves all our worship.
When you think about how you prepare for worship, what changes do you want to make? Where is there room for improvement? For example, maybe you need to allow more time to arrive at church so that you are not rushing into a service. Maybe you want to pray in the car on the way to services. Maybe you can listen to worship music on your way to service to prepare. Maybe you need to confess any sin that God brings to mind before you enter a church service. Whatever the case, choose one way to focus on preparing your heart for worship this week.
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 (NLT)
"As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. 2 Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.
3 Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
4 When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. 5 It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. 6 Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
7 Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead."
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