WORSHIP

We invite you to start with reading Isaiah 6:1-3 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

In summer 2019 my family spent a day at the beach. My son and I splashed in the waves while my wife looked after our baby. After a while James decided he wanted to go back to Mummy for a snack. James wears glasses, but he'd taken them off to go swimming. As James got out of the surf, his eyes couldn't see Chantal waving in the distance, so he started running in what he thought was the right direction, weaving this way, then that way, because he didn't know the way - UNTIL he caught a clear sight of his Mummy, at which point he ran STRAIGHT to her.

It struck me that this was a great picture of our attempts to come before the Father in worship. Without a clear revelation of God, we will stumble, trip and fall in our efforts to reach Him. But when God reveals Himself to us, in His Son Jesus, we are able to respond in worship.

We see this very clearly in the Bible, when Isaiah receives his famous vision. Upon seeing God, Isaiah is convicted of his sin, and his response is to repent and accept the call of God on his life. Without God's revelation of Himself, Isaiah's worship would have been ill-informed, half-hearted and misdirected. New Testament scholar David Peterson has this wonderful definition of true worship: “Worship of the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible”.

So as we seek to worship God in praise & thanksgiving for all He has done and will do in Europe, how do we best receive revelation of the true & living God, and engage with him on the terms he proposes and in the way he has made possible? Well, primarily in the pages of Scripture.

Martin Luther famously wrote, “let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” Without the Bible we don't hear God speak, and without hearing God speak we don't know what to do.

Let us not be ignorant in our worship but let us worship God in Spirit and in truth. Read the Bible and hear the voice of God. Read the Bible and see Jesus. Read the Bible and receive the Holy Spirit's power.

PRAYER TOPICS 

• Thank God that He has revealed Himself in Scripture, and in His Son.
• Pray for Christian hymnwriters and worship songwriters, that the words of Scripture will be a rich source of inspiration for the Church today and in the future.
• Pray for your church, that you would be a community that worships God in Spirit & in Truth.
• Pray for faithful preachers of God’s Word, who continually point the way to Jesus.

SUGGESTED PRAYER  

Father in Heaven, thank you for the gift of the Bible, which is a light for my feet and a light on my path; fill me with your Holy Spirit, who leads me into all Truth, so that I may see Jesus your Son, the radiance of your glory and the exact representation of your being.

REFLECTION  

Set aside 2 hours this week to read through Mark’s Gospel in one sitting. As you follow the action of Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom ask yourself 5 questions:

• What did I notice for the first time?
• What questions do I have?
• Was there anything that bothered me?
• What did I learn about loving God?
• What did I learn about loving others? 

Author: Oli Proctor, Great Britain, Biblica Partnerships Manager for Europe & Central Asia.

We hope this plan has encouraged you. Learn more about the European Evangelical Alliance and the Week of Prayer