I’ve heard some people say recently that they still really look forward to assembling for worship on the Lord’s Day. It’s more than a habit, it doesn’t feel like a have-to slog, but is a time they anticipate for sake of their progress and joy in the faith.
Add to that a number of baptism interviews I’ve conducted over the last couple weeks. Many of our young people want to participate with the rest of the church in communion. They aren’t being guilted into making a confession of faith, they are seeing what is good about faith in Christ. It’s not unrelated to some of the things I know the elders will be stressing at the parenting seminar later today: our kids should desire and delight in the culture of glad faith in Jesus Christ.
And what is most important in all this is that none of us have the anticipation of, or affection for, assembling before the Lord to the degree that the Lord Himself does. No matter how much you value it, He Himself has purposed and purchased our joyful communion with Himself.
He loves to show His mercy. “He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons” (Ephesians 1:5). “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). God’s own Spirit dwells in us and seals us for our inheritance (2 Timothy 1:14; Ephesians 1:13-14). And in Christ together we are being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).
The Triune God calls us to commune with Him because He delights to.