It was Alexander Graham Bell who told us “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
Does that hold true for “meetings”?
Harvard Business Review tells us we must learn how to master the “pre-meeting – the steps you need to take before a more formal meeting in order to prepare for it.” Why? To have a successful meeting. They said that no one stresses the most important step: you must prepare.
This worldly wisdom caught my attention under the heading of a “more streamlined way to prep for meetings”. In summary, the prep “takes time, care and attention….[and] creates the right environment for successful meetings.”
I just had to juxtapose that bit of business world knowledge with Henry Blackaby’s devotional titled “Prepare to Meet Your God!” And no, he is not talking about heading to Heaven; he focused on the children of Israel as described in this scripture:
And the Lord told Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” Exodus 19:10-11
I had not thought about the idea that meeting with God requires preparation. As Blackaby reminds me, God is awesome and perfectly holy. Barging into His presence unprepared is an affront, he said.
Take a look at the children of Israel who were being told God was going to meet with them. God commanded them first to take 2 full days to prep – they had to wash their clothes and be consecrated by Moses. Plus they had to not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it under penalty of death and only approach when the ram’s horn sounded a long blast. They knew the rules of preparing for meeting God.
And the meeting was NOT anticlimactic. God spoke to them on the third day with thunder and lightning, with fire and smoke and the sound of loud trumpets. Wow, that would get your attention and rouse one to excitement. And then He delivered in this encounter marvelous truths –what we know as the Ten Commandments. They established the standard by which God expected His people to live.
Think about our day after day life in this world – how much of our time is spent in business-like work, meetings, even after retiring from full employment, managing the daily bills, house maintenance, etc. dominate our world. As Blackaby points out, it affects our minds and wills and hearts. It does not take us long to become disoriented to the ways of God. He says the world “has a dulling effect on your spiritual sensibilities.”
And then he points out something that has been continuously a difficulty for me. He says “God established the Sabbath so His people could take an entire day to refocus on Him and His will for them after spending six days in the world.”
I grew up in a world where most everything business-wise was “closed” on Sundays. Our schools and sports and businesses pretty much came to a halt on Sundays. Not so today – and I realize I have come to expect most all businesses to be open on Sundays and get a little perturbed when the one I want to visit is not open.
Yes, I have felt Sunday ought to be different. The Ten Commandments say so. I read Dan Allender’s Sabbath: The Ancient Practices. He addressed myths about the “day of rest” and says these myths are at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. He did build his case for looking at the day as one of celebrating God’s re-creative, redemptive love and experiencing the Sabbath in a way I never considered.
But for now, I am camping on Blackaby’s words about the Sabbath as being a day to “refocus on Him and His will”. I will do more thinking about what that means in my life.
Yet here is the BIG question Blackaby asked that set me to thinking about this whole topic – “How do you prepare for your times of worship?” Hmmm, I immediately think of Sunday morning Sunday School and Church, then I have 2 Bible studies to which I belong, and then I consider my daily morning Bible and prayer time.
Blackaby pulled me up short when he asked what fills my mind the night before? Ooops, not thinking at all about the next day’s worship, whether it is formal Church or the informal morning devotional time.
He does make a point I think is true – often the last thing you put into your mind at night is still on your mind the next morning. I have to admit that often what is on my mind at night are the problems of tomorrow, or the week, and trying to work through the managing of my time, work issues, and generally “troubles” with which I need to deal. Ugh.
His point haunts me. “Genuine worship requires spiritual preparation. Your experiences of worship reflect your spiritual preparation.” I reflect that what is usually on my “preparation” mind on Sunday as well as the daily Bible time is fixing breakfast, rushing through the meal while estimating the time by which I must finish my daily ‘worship’ in order to get to church on time or start my daily business/work as required by the day’s events.
A part of me keeps popping up saying God is with me all day long – and I consult Him and interact at various times. What is different about this worship thing – this “meeting” with the Lord? Am I not being respectful of the power and glory of my Lord if I just quickly pop into a prayer or a thought comes to mind of how much I appreciate the view of the mountains and sky from my deck which remind me of the hugeness of His majesty? Is this different from “meeting” with God?
Yep, this is making me think through – what would be effective and respectful “preparation” for meeting God in my church worship, my daily devotional time, and perhaps before the Bible study meetings? OK, in my defense, one thing does come to mind. On some days when no one else is around, I scroll to YouTube on my phone and pull up “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman and play it at top volume while lustily singing along “with all my heart”. Love that song. And it “brings me to worship”.
Maybe that is more of what is important for me to pull out and think through with regard to this “meeting” discussion. Washing my clothes? Getting my mind focused on Him? What shows the respect I want to show my Lord?
I will take to heart, consider in depth, and maybe have a conversation with the Lord – what is my response to Blackaby’s direction and words? He says, “Prepare yourself now for your next encounter with God.”
