Dial 9 For Heartfelt Worship And Praise

We’ve all been there. We’re in the doctor’s office. It’s taking longer than expected. We’re late for another appointment, so we ask the receptionist if we can use the phone. We dial the number twice and nothing happens. We ask in frustration, “How do I dial out?” The receptionist says, “you need to dial 9 first.”

Making spiritual comparison and application of the above scenario — We’ve come to church to worship God. We’re singing. We’re praying along with the brother leading the prayer. As the preacher is preaching from God’s word, we’re following the Bible passages as they are read. But nothing is happening inside. We really do want to worship the Lord, but we feel as if we’re just going through the motions. What can we do?

Let’s remember to dial 9 by opening our Bibles to Psalm 9, and follow David’s prompts as he expresses his heartfelt praise to the Lord:

• Give thanks to the Lord with all our heart (Psalm 9:1).
• Think about His “marvelous works” (Psalm 9:1).
• Be glad, rejoice, and sing praise to His name! (Psalm 9:2).
• Acknowledge that He defends us from our enemies (Psalm 9:3-5).
• The Lord is our refuge in time of trouble (Psalm 9:9).
• As we sing praises to the Lord, think about what He’s done for us (Psalm 9:11).
• Let’s think about His mercy toward us and rejoice in His salvation! (Psalm 9:13-14).

Beloved, if we will follow David’s example of praise from the heart, we’ll once again reconnect with God as we offer our worship and praise to Him. Remember, at the heart of worship, is worship from the heart! (John 4:23-24).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets