40 Days of Prayer Days 10-21

Um, ok. I'm failing more than I'm succeeding at this 40-day-blog thing. Still, better to bat 400 than 200, so I'll try again tonight.

Day 10

Point to Ponder: The heart of worship is surrender.

Prayer guide note: PRAY for protection of the relationships in our church body. Pray that the enemy would not be able to deceive us and disrupt the unity of the body. Pray that you would not fall prey to the lies of the enemy about your brothers and sisters.

Day 11

Point to Ponder: God wants to be my best friend.

Prayer guide note: PRAY for the marriages in our church body. Pray for protection from the darts of the enemy. Pray for love and unity in the families of our church. Pray for the recent marriages in our congregation, and the special stresses of that first year.

Day 12

Point to Ponder: I'm as close to God as I choose to be.

Prayer guide note: Pray that we realize that our inheritance and hope as a church family is in God’s incomparable and incredible great power which is available to us Eph. 1:18-19

Day 13

Point to Ponder: God wants all of me.

Prayer guide note: Pray that our Church Staff becomes more and more surrendered and poured out to Christ, so they can have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:16

In an earlier blog I asked how God evaluates worship. I anticipated that I would have to engage in a huge word study to track this down. As it turns out, Rick Warren has done at least some of my work for me. His Day 13 is all about worship that pleases God. According to Warren...

God is pleased when our worship is accurate. (John 4:23) To "worship in truth" means to worship God as he is truly revealed in the Bible.

God is pleased when our worship is authentic. (1 Samuel 16:7b) When we worship, God looks past our words to see the attitude of our hearts.

God is pleased when our worship is thoughtful. (Matthew 6:7) If worship is mindless, it is meaningless.

God is pleased when our worship is practical. (Romans 12:1) In eternity, you will receive a new, improved, upgraded body, but while you're here on earth, God says, "Give me what you've got!"

I can agree with all of this, and while I don't know that it's exhaustive, it's enough to return to the question--if this is how God evaluates worship, then how can we begin to evaluate it in the same way instead of in our conventional categories of how-I-liked-the-sermon, how-I-liked-the-music, and how-I-liked-the-kids'-behavior?