Hebrews 10:22 gives us insight into how we can prepare for worship. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." We find four ways to prepare.
The first is "with a sincere heart". We need to draw near with a single-minded focus on God and His glory. Apathy and preoccupation with self can create a hypocrisy that can be fatal to authentic worship. We must not rush into the presence of God with an insincere heart.
Second is "devotedness". We are challenged to draw near in . . . "full assurance of faith." The writer was saying to the people they had to turn loose of the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, the worshipper has to come according to the truth that comes by faith alone. The rituals, self-righteousness, and other works were no longer acceptable. Only faith alone would now be acceptable to God.
Third is "selflessness". The Hebrew writer says, "with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience". Emptied and humbled we must come with a sense of our own unworthiness, with the knowledge that our heart is naturally evil.
Fourth is "transparent and pure". This of course indicates a daily confession and spiritual purging in our lives in order to deal with our sinfulness. The sin of our humanness must constantly be dealt with in order for us to be prepared for worship. 1 John 1:9 talks of this cleansing. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse [keep on cleansing] us from all unrighteousness." This is always a prerequisite to our coming into the presence of God and acceptable worship. May we always come, prepared. . . for worship. mjm
