Casandra Martin

I could barely open the door. My arms were full and I couldn’t reach the handle. Trying to balance bags, Sunday School curriculum, Bibles, my purse, and a package, I made my way into the room and dumped everything on the counter before it could fall out of my hands. It was Sunday morning after worship, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I had made it that far without spilling everything on the floor. Laughing, I looked around at the other people in the room and said, “I didn’t come into church with my arms this full.”

It didn’t take but just a moment for the significance of the object lesson to sink in. I stared at my pile, smiling at the way God teaches me through burdens and my own clumsiness. I had walked into the building with my arms empty. I was leaving my time with God’s people with my arms full. Come in empty; leave full. Isn’t that the essence of worship?

The world depletes us. It saps our energy, drains our joy, diminishes our peace, and dulls our sense of wonder. Worship reignites our passion. It refocuses our vision, strengthens our determination, infuses grace into our struggles, and drenches us in glory.

Each piece of worship is designed to fill the emptiness of the world with the fullness of God’s presence. Singing pushes out the empty echoes and fills us with praise for His name. Prayer acknowledges our deep need and helps us seek the fullness of His purpose. The Lord’s Supper calls us to be overwhelmed by the nearness of His presence, the love of His sacrifice, and the amazing privileges of being His child. Giving challenges us to pour out what we settle for so that He can fill us with His immeasurably more. Engaging in the Word unleashes God’s promises and fuels transformation.

My Jesus Resolution today is to celebrate the way God fills me in worship. I am going to pay attention to my own deep need for grace and watch in wonder as He takes the empty, broken pieces of who I am and fills them with Himself. Worship is meant to be the fuel that powers my movement through my days. Running low on worship means that I can’t get where He wants me to go. Today I want to remember that every time my heart gets close to “E”, the answer is to enter His presence in worship and allow Him to fill me up.