Don't spoil your dinner.

This is the second part of a series on preparing yourself for worship. Part 1, "Wash Up" was posted on March 10th.
Many of us have heard it over and over from our parents, teachers, or any other adult in our lives... "If you eat now, you're going to spoil your dinner." The phrase can be confusing to young people...it's not like your dinner is actually going to spoil because you snack before the official meal, it's just that you're going to fill up before dinner and not be able to eat the meal that hopefully has some nutritional value to it. So, we would pout...maybe even beg....or claim that, "I'll still be hungry." But more often than not, we're already full of some snack food that is merely filler and it gets in the way getting what we really need.
Sometimes we do this as we approach church or worship. We bring things into worship that keep us from getting what we really need. Maybe it's guilt from the things we've done wrong....maybe we're still mad at someone and "can't believe they call themselves a Christian..." or maybe we're just pouting about the way things are at church....we don't like it, it's not our style, or the more popular "I don't get anything out of it..."
Lots of things get in the way. But these all have one thing in common - us. We sometimes get so caught up in what we're feeling, that we forget to open ourselves up to what God might have in store for us. We've essentially filled up on feelings of guilt, irritation, hate....and there's no room for God to move us to feeling the way we should when we're in the presence of the Lord Almighty. Last week I talked about preparing for worship by getting in a worship-ful state of being before entering the worship place. This week, I challenge you to not "spoil your dinner" by bringing feelings into worship...be open to what God might have to say to you through those leading worship. If we ask God to do amazing things, we need to come expecting miracles. Go. Serve. And remember to Love always.