A song of ascents. Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.
May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from ZionPsalm 134

Just like the People of God in the Old testament, as we approach God we are to encourage one another. Not only our fellow worshippers, but those in full-time ministry. We may not think they need encouragement, but they are human just as we are.
As we worship God, we must remember that we are to put him first. The worship of God is not to be concerned with our feelings, or what we get out of it. It can be so easy to form a consumerist view of worship, going where we can get the best deal, instead of worshipping God.

Our praise should be constant, not just on a Sunday, but in our every day lives. For our God should have an influence in everything we do, from our work to our rest.

We are to worship him in holiness.

We are to know whom we worship – the Maker of heaven and earth, the holy one. It is amazing to think we are coming before the creator of the universe, it is even more amazing that we have direct access, through his Son, even though we are rebellious sinners by nature. For through his Son, we are made holy, we are made acceptable in the sight of God.

Finally, we receive blessing from God through the people of God. We are to worship him together, that we might receive his blessing. Whilst there is a place for private worship, it mustn’t be to the exclusion of corporate worship.

As human beings, we lack the will to seek the Lord. Our sinful nature means we refuse to come to the only Saviour for life. We may be too religious, proud, agnostic, atheistic, or just plain lazy.

It can be all too easy to think that carrying out rituals, having a knowledge of holy books, and having other trappings of religion can save us. Yet, if we are not trusting in Jesus Christ for our salvation, our religion cannot save us.

We may be to proud to admit we need a crutch. As sinners, we are all in need of a Saviour, but we may not be willing to accept it, or that we can do nothing about it.

We may complain that we cannot know absolute truth. We may question the truth of the bible. We ask that God would make it more obvious. We cannot accept that truth doesn’t change, and that the bible is truth.

We may think that God doesn’t exist. If we do away with the judge, we cannot be guilty. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we know we are guilty. We have all fallen short of God’s glory.

Lastly, we may accept all that the Bible says is true. We may accept we are sinners before a holy God. We may know and acknowledge our guilt. We may show a desire to know more about Jesus Christ. Yet, we hide behind a veil of laziness. We ask why salvation requires so much effort.

All of these, Jesus encountered, and to all of them he said the issue was a lack of will-power. In a way, we are all inherently lazy, we all lack a desire to seek God. However, to all who ask, God will enable. For God has done everything required that we might be saved.