Preparing for Worship

I received an email containing the following regarding worship, may it challenge your thoughts.
Preparing for Worship!

Whether it is private or corporate worship, one’s heart needs to be prepared. Worship is the communication, or the response, of our spirit with the Spirit of God. It is when, for our heart of hearts, we rejoice in who He is.

The preparation of our heart is to open ourselves to Him, so that we are in position to receive a spiritual examination. The Psalmist spoke for all who truly wish to worship, when he said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me…and see if there is any wicked way in me.” We position ourselves to receive this examination by praying for God to show us our heart. We don’t always know our heart, as well as we would like to think. It is easy to be self-deceived. As we honestly pray for this, we will soon see what things need to be dealt with in our life. There may be things for which we need to repent, and there may be other areas where we need to make a commitment to action.

For public worship preparation, we must determine to aggressively seek after the Lord through all the aspects of the worship service, from the prayers, to the singing, to the offering, to the sermon, and whatever else that transpires. Worship is connecting with God. We must plan to give Him our best, which includes our best attention, our best surrender, and our best commitment.