Hospitable Worship

By Jesse Becker

We all play this game when it comes to having guests in our homes: We tidy up every visible spot in our house. We clear the dining room table. We sweep and mop the floors. We dust the shelves and the top of the piano. We wash the windows, clear away cobwebs in the corners, straighten the pillows, and turn on the essential oil diffuser. We check that everything that can be seen is in its place. Anything that gets in the way of the appearance of neatness and order is stuffed into the closets, under the bed, up in the attic, or down into the basement.

This is part of being a host to a guest in your home. We don’t want our messes to get in the way of our time with our guests or make them feel uncomfortable or give a bad impression. We all play this game.

When we come to the Lord’s house, we bring a little room of our own — it’s called our heart. The church is the Lord’s house, and we invite Him to be present with us. But the room that God really wants to occupy is your heart. The challenge then is letting God in. We know the messes that live there. And while we can tidy up on the outside, it is the room of our heart where we make God feel at home or not.

Every Sunday, as a congregation, we sing wonderful songs filled with truths about our heavenly Father. But no song service can force a heart to engage the presence of God. Outside circumstances can encourage and promote this engagement, even providing opportunity, but the responsibility lies on each of us to personally invite God’s presence. The real preparation for this moment needs to occur long before the worship hour. If we would seriously look inside our heart and address the messes we find, we could more freely and excitedly invite God as our most honored guest. That is where our hospitable worship begins.

“God has that freedom to roam our hearts. He can and does look in every corner. He sees and knows all. To think that we can be hospitable to God on Sunday morning without preparing completely for His visit is foolish.”

So, back to that game we play. What if our house guests were free to roam our entire house and look in every closet, under every bed, up in the attic, and down in the basement? It is likely we would be embarrassed at some point. If we knew they could and would do that, we would surely clean up everywhere.

God has that freedom to roam our hearts. He can and does look in every corner. He sees and knows all. To think that we can be hospitable to God on Sunday morning without preparing completely for His visit is foolish. 

As worshippers it is imperative that we prepare the room of our hearts so that there is nothing holding us back from completely embracing our Father and our Friend. God longs for true and whole fellowship. And He longs for it not just on Sunday, but every day. Let’s clean all the corners of our room. Let’s be hospitable to God. Let nothing come between you and your God.