Here is a reading to meditate on in your personal worship time today. Worship planners may also find it useful in corporate settings:
God of the Bethlehem star,
everyone is searching for your light
shining in the face of Christ.
The Magi sought Christ simply to worship him.
But Herod sought him to appease his jealous anger.
We confess that our motives in seeking Jesus are not pure.
We do not come simply to worship:
we come to Christ, asking his benefits of reassurance, health, wealth;
asking him to fulfill the hundred petitions
for not-so-important requests that we heap before him.
But the Magi sought first the kingdom.
Help us, God, to follow their example,
putting our own need in perspective,
worshiping the Christ in love, content to be in your presence,
and laying our gifts before you.
Then may we journey, trusting that your goodness and light
will accompany us all the days of our life. Amen.
-based on Matthew 2:1-16; 6:33
Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, c. 2004, CRCÂ Publications.
The confession is, of course, that part of a worship liturgy wherein we confess our sins to God, repent of them and ask His forgiveness. Before the Throne contains two worship songs of confession: “I’m Coming Back” and “Lead Us Back.”
