Going to God's house seems like a simple and pleasant thing to do, but for many people, being in church is a difficult and routine activity.

I always say that going to church is a privilege that many people don't have, such as the sick, the incarcerated, those who work during worship hours, those who live far from a church, among other examples.

At the same time, some people who may be in church despise this God-given opportunity to worship Him, to converse with Him, to receive from Him anointing and power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to be taught by Him. Him.

How many wonderful things have we described above of what God can provide us during a service or during a church meeting.

But not everyone sees it this way, perhaps because they do not think it is important to worship God or because they do not care about receiving spiritual things from God, which according to the Word of God itself, moth and rust do not corrode.

Matthew 6:
19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

God once told Solomon what He would do when His people presented themselves at the temple:

2 Chronicles 7:
12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

God was promising Solomon that He would be attentive to everything that happened in the temple (church), which had been consecrated to Him.

This would already be a great, huge reason for people to be motivated to go to church, because God is attentive to everything that happens there.

In another Biblical passage, Jesus presents himself to the apostle John walking among the churches:

Revelation 1:
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Jesus is the Lord of the church, therefore He cares for and directs the church and we cannot agree and accept that some people feel bored or discouraged when they have to go to church, often becoming a sacrifice or something that is done against their will.

These people certainly have great difficulty in feeling the presence of God and are spiritually cold and exchange God for any situation that appears in front of them and that is “pleasant to their flesh”.

Make no mistake, because God knows all hearts and all thoughts, therefore He knows very well if we are being true worshipers, who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The one who always loses with contempt for God is not God, but rather the one who is practicing it.

God must always be his priority, always come first.

God never accepted that his people put him in second place, which is actually rejecting God.

God never accepted worship that was not true and that was not the best of his people.

When the people of Israel took an animal to be sacrificed to God, it could not have any defects and must be the firstborn, otherwise the sacrifice would become invalid.

If his worship is not the best for God, he will not be received.

Genesis 4:
3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.
4 And Abel also brought an offering — fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

For God, rituals, by themselves, represent nothing.

Isaiah 1:
12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.

Seek God to feel pleasure and joy in His things.

Remember that just going to church is not enough, go to worship the only God and his beloved Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Take advantage of the opportunities you have today, before they disappear.

Psalms 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

May your feeling be the same as David's feeling when he wrote: Psalm 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

The Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Val Martins