By Rich Peterson (Church Relations Officer)
Read Nehemiah 12 27-43 and consider the following:
The people of God in Nehemiah’s day gathered to celebrate God’s provision of the Wall and they did so through an elaborate worship service where they joined together to worship God more fully. Each week Christians celebrate God’s amazing grace offered through Jesus Christ; we don’t come together to dedicate a wall – we dedicate ourselves and we do so in worship!
- The first feature of effective corporate worship is the need to PAUSE.
We come together for fellowship and worship because there is a need for us to take time out from all our appointed duties to celebrate! The whole idea of Sabbath is to take a step back from all our daily tasks and work-related projects in order to celebrate.
As we gather for worship, we “hit the pause button” and literally step back physically from our overly busy lives to focus on God.
Hitting this pause button is becoming increasingly rare these days. Our lives are filled with endless activities and commitments, and we are rushing through all of these at a frantic pace. Most of us live life at such a quick clip that worship gets lost in the shuffle.
But we are fashioned by a loving God to pause. In the steady rhythm of life God asks that we rest from our work one day a week. Even Christians, perhaps especially Christians, need to rediscover the importance and value of keeping the Sabbath. One day in seven created just for us so that we might pause for refreshment, rest, and worship.
We build this PAUSE into our lives on a weekly basis – to enjoy God, to enjoy each other, and to enjoy life!
We celebrate!
We have been created with this special pause button called Sabbath (rest, worship, and celebration). Let’s dedicate ourselves to hitting that pause button with regularity and see if our lives are not almost instantaneously enriched!
Next step…
Join our Facebook group and share your thoughts or the answers to the following questions.
- Do you have a schedule where coming to worship is difficult? Tell us about this. How do you find worship with other believers?
- How do you find moments to pause in your busy schedule?
- What did you learn from this devotional and in reading Nehemiah?
Catch up on previous devotionals:
- Until Jesus Comes (click here)
- How To Achieve Individual and Corporate Transformation (click here)
- Authenticity in Barbie Land (click here)
- A Prayer To Our Holy Father (click here)
- Celebrate Our Great God (click here)
- Hit The Pause Button and Celebrate (click here)
- Jesus and Solitude (download here)
- The Practice of Solitude (click here)
Related Articles:
- Loving The Creator God by Gerry Schroeder
- VIDEO: Finding The Presence of God by Dan Penney
- “I Never Pray” by Gordon Ellison