Preparing for Sunday Service? Yes, it is beneficial and to a large extent necessary. David promised God in saying “I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.” in Psalms 35:18 for God’s work of salvation from his enemies. Our God has saved us from the greatest of our troubles – his own wrath. Also every day we see him saving us and leading us. Some weeks we have joyful hearts that are ready to praise him. On other weeks we are burdened and need to sense his closeness and care in our lives. We must thank our God in worship. It has been the practice of Christians to gather at least once a week to worship God together with other saints. Most of us gather on Sunday. We can make the most of our gatherings and glorify God by preparing and participating well in the Sunday Service. What I seek to do here is to list out a few methods we can use to do so.

Preparing for Sunday Service Spiritually

How can you prepare yourself to make the most of the Sunday worship gathering service spiritually?

Pray for God to show you evidences of his grace in your life daily

God’s grace is abundant in the life of his child. God gives us grace to love when we want to hate. God gives us grace to forgive when we want to be bitter. God gives us grace to be humble when we swell with pride. God gives us grace to remain silent when we want to burst in anger. We must be thankful for God’s grace in our lives. Ask God to show you evidences of his grace. Then you will not learn to take his grace for granted. The grace of God is enough reason for us to worship God and seek him when we gather. It shows us that God has not forgotten us and he still cares for us and the details of our lives.

Pray for the preacher

God nourishes our souls and renews our minds by the hearing of God’s word. The preacher works hard to understand and expound the bible to us. This does not mean he is not in need of God’s grace. You will be doing well for your own sake and others who will be there at the Sunday service if you would pray for the preacher through the week. Pray that God would give him wisdom, peace and understanding. Pray that God will give the preacher application for the text that will be relevant to all. Pray that God will bless the preacher with good health.

Pray for the musicians and choir

We not only hear God’s word in the sermon but we also sing God’s word in songs. Pray for the health and preparedness of the musicians and the choir. Pray that they will be inclined to chose songs that will lift our hearts in worship to God.

Pray for your own self

Pray that God will help you through the week in your struggles that you be not overcome by guilt and sorrow. Pray that you do not yield to temptations of the devil. Pray that you will be able to forgive your brother/sister before the service. Ask God to help you set things right.

Preparing for Sunday Service Practically

Preparing for Sunday service is not just a spiritual exercise but is also a practical exercise. There are some small things that will go a long way in preparing yourself and the family for Sunday service.

Plan ahead

Yes, it sounds cliche. But one can never overemphasize this point. In most households, Sunday morning is waking up late, wondering what could be a good option for breakfast, finding that you do not have all the ingredients, wonder what else you could eat, if you manage to have a plan for breakfast you now have to deal with what you will wear and do all that in time for you to leave and find that your vehicle does not have fuel. You will have to go to the station and wait in a queue. If you have children, your situation only worsens and does not improve.

Could you have done better? Of course yes.

Plan for your Sunday on Saturday

Plan your breakfast, ensure that you have all the ingredients in place. Go ahead and plan and prepare for the Sunday lunch too. Why would you want to spend half the time during sermon wondering what you will eat once this is done? You would do good to prepare a little extra so that you could invite someone home for lunch. Think hospitality!

Plan what you will wear and the kids and the hubby on Saturday. You won’t (shouldn’t!) put on that much weight overnight so the clothes wont fit the next day. Make sure the clothes are ironed and set aside.

Fuel up the vehicle. Visit the ATM – do not search your wallet once the offering is announced during the Sunday service only to find that you have no money. Prepare for Sunday service in advance. This also is part of your worship. God receives all this preparation from you as your worship.

Retire to bed early on Saturday

If you are up late on Saturday for any reason you will find yourself dozing off on Sunday. It is distracting to the preacher. It is dishonoring God. Get sufficient rest.

Preparing for Sunday service is your service to God. Worship God in all these steps and more. If you have any other ideas I would love to read them from your comments.