Wednesday, September 16, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Confession

In this second movement, we simply see ourselves for who we are: people who need God.

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
 a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
—Psalm 51:17 (NIV)

Like the prophet Isaiah, an encounter with a holy God makes us all too aware of our own sin. But this is not something to be avoided. In fact, it is something to be embraced. We should desire an awareness of our sin, because such awareness leads to a greater revelation of God’s remarkable love and grace.

The Puritan minister Richard Alleine captured both the pain and beauty of recognizing our brokenness in a prayer he wrote in 1660. Spend some time reading this prayer slowly and reflectively. Soak in the truth that a broken heart before God is a beautiful thing, a place of honesty and also a place of tender mercy.

I mourn, Lord, and I lament.
I weep, but it is because I cannot mourn or lament as I should.
If I could mourn as I ought, I would be comforted.
If I could weep, I would rejoice.
If I could sigh, I would sing.
If I could lament, I would live.

But I die. I die, and my heart dies within me, because I cannot cry.
I cry, Lord, but not for sin.
I cry, I beg for tears for sin.
I cry, Lord, my calamities cry, my bones cry, my soul cries, my sins cry, “Lord, for a broken heart.”

But look: I am not broken yet.

The rocks tear apart, the earth quakes, the heavens drop, the clouds weep, the sun will blush, the moon be ashamed, the foundations of the earth will tremble at the presence of the Lord.

But this heart neither breaks nor trembles.
If only I had a broken heart!
If I did, you would have your way in my heart.

What would be impossible, if my heart were tender?
Work would be easy.
Pains would be a pleasure.
Burdens would be light.
Neither the commands nor the cross would be severe.
Nothing would be hard except sin.

Where are you, fear?
Come and plough up this rock.
Where are you, love?
Come and thaw this ice,
Come and warm this dead lump,
Come and enlarge this poverty-stricken spirit.
Then will I run the way of your commandments.

I accept of all that is yours, both your yoke and your cross.
I accept you, Lord—your love, and whatever you will.
Lord, if you love, let me love you.
I will seek, until I can see.
Let me see, until I can love.

My all is with you: my help, my hope, my treasure.
My life is hidden with Christ in God.
Yet this is all nothing to me, while my heart is not with you.

Take it, Lord; take it up.
Where my treasure is, there let my heart be also. Amen.

—Richard Alleine

SONG OF CONFESSION: Humbled Heart (lyrics here)

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Encounter With God

In this first movement, we simply seek to see God for who He is: the One worthy of worship.

“Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
—1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (NRSVUE)

When we enter a space of worship there is a bit of a battle already taking place. We enter that place from a world filled with so many voices competing for our attention. Some are simple distractions, but others are more insidious and destructive—voices that tell a story that stands in stark contrast to the one revealed in Scripture and illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

This first movement of worship serves to counter those voices and bring us back to the true story, the one which is rooted in the identity and actions of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. By orienting our gaze upward and hearing again of the attributes and works of God, those false, competing voices are silenced and replaced by reminders of what grounds and centers us.

One of the tools the church has used to do this for centuries is the Apostles’ Creed, a collection of belief statements that remind us who God is, what he has done, and where it is that we find our mercy and hope. Set to music, the worshipfulness of the creed is highlighted even more.

Following the song, you are invited to meditate on the words of the Apostles’ Creed below. Which statements most lead you into that worshipful space today?

SONG OF ENCOUNTER: This I Believe (lyrics here)

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Monday, September 14, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

A Call To Worship

On Mondays we use the Hebrew Psalter to focus in on the invitation to approach God in worship.

Read through the Psalm slowly and prayerfully, either silently or out loud. Pay attention to the movement of your soul and the longings of your heart as you read. How does it stir you to worship? What focus might you find from this Psalm for this coming week?

Psalm 8

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 8 (lyrics here)

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Encounter With God

In this first movement, we simply seek to see God for who He is: the One worthy of worship.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
—James 1:17 (NIV)

We live in a time of great disequilibrium. The word is changing faster than we can keep track, and the pace of that change is absolutely exhausting. Reports and statistics of psychological distress in our culture are on the rise, and one of the main contributors (perhaps even the largest) is the sheer chaos that seems to surround us. It’s hard not to feel stress when the ground beneath our feet seems to constantly shift.

Worship, however, grounds us. When we enter the presence of God, we are entering the presence of the unchanging One. Worship re-orients us and puts us back on a stable footing by reminding us that we exist in relationship with the God who brings order out of chaos, who provides a firm foundation for our souls as well as our feet. Jesus spoke to this truth in a parable:

“I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”
—Luke 6:47-49 (NLT)

The foundation is Jesus. The foundation is his truth, his word. The foundation stands, as Paul says, “bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his.’” (2 Timothy 2)

Let’s worship the God who doesn’t change, who is our rock and fortress, our firm foundation.

SONG OF ENCOUNTER: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (lyrics here)

Monday, August 31, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

A Call To Worship

On Mondays we use the Hebrew Psalter to focus in on the invitation to approach God in worship.

Read through the Psalm slowly and prayerfully, either silently or out loud. Pay attention to the movement of your soul and the longings of your heart as you read. How does it stir you to worship? What focus might you find from this Psalm for this coming week?

Psalm 123

Refrain: Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.

To you I lift up my eyes,
to you that are enthroned in the heavens.

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
or the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,
until he have mercy upon us.

Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.

Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of the arrogant,
and of the contempt of the proud.

Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.

Sovereign God, enthroned in the heavens,
look upon us with your eyes of mercy,
as we look on you with humility and love,
and fill our souls with your peace
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing

CALL TO WORSHIP: Be Enthroned (lyrics unavailable)

Saturday & Sunday, August 29/30, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Benediction

“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”
—Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

SONG OF BENEDICTION: Aaron’s Blessing (lyrics here)

Friday, August 28, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Commission

In this final movement, we are encouraged and equipped for the work God would have us do.

“He got right up and went home to his father.”
—Luke 15:20 (MSG)

When all is said and done, what is it we are looking for? What is the common cry of every human heart? I think a case could be made that what we are looking for…is home.

What is home to you? For those who have had a positive home experience, home is a place of comfort and peace. If that’s the case, the idea of finding our home is God is an expansion of what we already know. For those whose experience of home was difficult, or even worse, then finding our home in God is an invitation to know what we were meant to experience but were denied.

For all of us, though, the invitation is the same. For the ways we’ve wandered, in the midst of the pain we carry, despite our sometimes stubborn insistence that we need “something else,” the Spirit’s call continues to echo in our lives as it has throughout all time: Come home.

In Peterson’s Message translation of John 15, he renders a familiar invitation of Jesus this way:

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.”
—John 15:9 (MSG)

As you meditate on these words, how do you respond? Are you able to receive them? If you find them difficult, don’t let that be an excuse to beat yourself up. Jesus knows exactly how we feel, and his invitation is one filled with patient understanding and compassion.

Spend some time contemplating these words of Jesus, who tells us that he loves us just as God has loved him. What does that mean for you? Are you able to receive the intimacy and deep comfort they bring? What would it look like for you to take one more step along the road home?

SONG OF COMMISSION: The Road Home (lyrics below)

The Road Home

Tell me, where is the road

I can call my own,

That I left, that I lost,

So long ago?

All these years I have wandered,

Oh, when will I know

There's a way, there's a road

That will lead me home?

After wind, after rain,

When the dark is done.

As I wake from a dream

In the gold of day,

Through the air there's a calling

From far away,

There's a voice I can hear

That will lead me home.

Rise up, follow me,

Come away, is the call,

With the love in your heart

As the only song;

There is no such beauty

As where you belong:

Rise up, follow me,

I will lead you home.

Music by Stephen Paulus
Words by Michael Dennis Browne

Thursday, August 27, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Assurance

In this third movement, we receive the good news of the gospel: we are forgiven.

“As a father has compassion on his children,
 so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
—Psalm 103:13 (NIV)

Psalm 103 is a powerful reflection on the love and mercy of God. It is a wonderful scripture to return to whenever we need to be reminded and assured that our sins are forgiven.

Read the following verses from Psalm 103 slowly and prayerfully. Pay attention to any words or phrases that resonate with you. Pay attention as well to any that you resist inwardly. Offer both to God in prayer, asking the Spirit to bathe you in reminders of God’s compassion and grace. This is the good news: we are forgiven.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
—Psalm 103:8-12 (NIV)

SONG OF ASSURANCE: The Lord is Gracious and Compassionate (lyrics here)