One of the old dictums of the church is a Latin phrase lex orandi lex credendi: the law of prayer is the law of faith. Or, you could say, the way you worship and pray impacts how and what you believe. While it is true that believing in Christ drives you to worship Him; it is also true that as you worship Christ, you are educating your faith, discipling your faith, feeding your faith. How we worship the Lord here informs how we will think, live, and act out there.
This is why we have wanted to cultivate a culture of joyful solemnity in our worship. And this really is something that takes work, practice, prayer, and attention. We do not want our worship to be stuffy, fussy, or pretentious. The Bible is clear: we are to enter into God’s presence with joy and thanksgiving. But the Bible is also clear that we may not enter into God’s presence in a casual manner, flippantly or thoughtlessly. We are to draw near to the Lord with reverence and awe and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. This is what we mean by a joyful solemnity.
All of this is to encourage you to keep working at this with your people. Give thought to what you wear and how you prepare for worship. Many of you already do this, but maybe some of you have not given it much thought. We have no interest in dress codes or lists of rules, but remember that we are meeting with the King of the universe, so put on your Sunday best, whatever that may be, and not because you think you can impress Him or for the praise of man, but simply as an act of faith. And remember what sort of occasion this is: it’s common in some churches to sip a latte while watching the Sunday sermon, and we wonder why the Church is so weak. Latte worship produces a latte faith (and nothing against lattes). Remember, by faith we are ascending into the heavenly places to worship the King, to be fed by His word and at His table, to be commissioned as His Holy Armies. We are not here to be entertained, even if we are worshiping in a theater or a gym.
The law of worship is the law of faith. So come in faith, and come and worship.
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