Anxiously Waiting For Worship To End?

Amos 8:5 (NIV) – saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?” — skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,

Prophet Amos accused sinners of many things they do that offend God. He accuses them of mistreating the poor and less privileged. He accuses them of abusing religious ceremonies with hypocrisy. He tells them that God hated their best organized religious ceremonies of worship because the motive isn’t pleasing God.

Amos 8:10 (NIV) – I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

Prophet Amos even tells the people of Israel that the word of God they have ignored will soon be scarce. The God they have ignored will be difficult to find. There will be a hunger for the word of God.

Amos 8:11-12 (NIV) – 11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

Only the word of God can heal and comfort. If we ignore it now, we may not find it when we are ready. Stock the word of God in your heart to be ready for the coming famine.

Among the many things that Amos accuses Israel of, is a strange one that I want us to focus on. He accused them of being anxious for the Sabbath to end and other religious ceremonies to end, so that they can go to their business.

Amos 8:5 (New Living Translation) – You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.

God is not pleased by people who attend worship but are anxious for it to end. The anxiety for worship to end, means that we treat worship as an interruption of our important business. Anxiety for worship to end means it is unpleasant and we are in it out of force or fear. It is wrong to attend worship while anxiously waiting for it to end!

Anxious to go back to business after Sabbath? Anxious to go and finish a project after Sabbath? Anxious to watch something secular? Anxious to see the Sabbath end so that you can go back to normal life? If worship is not your normal, it means you don’t belong to God! It is wrong to attend worship while anxiously waiting for it to end!

Nehemiah faced the same problem after reconstructing the walls of Jerusalem. Business people would come and spend the whole Sabbath at the closed gates of Jerusalem. They were anxiously waiting for the Sabbath to come to an end, so that they can go back to business. Nehemiah warned them and told them, this anxious waiting is breaking the Sabbath!

Nehemiah 13:19-22 (NIV) – 19 When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. 22 Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

If you are waiting for the Sabbath to end so that you can resume your work, it means, your mind is on your work and not the Sabbath. Prophet Amos tells us that others wait for the Sabbath to end so that they can go and cheat and commit other sins. 

Amos 8:5 (New Living Translation) – You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.

Anxious for the Sabbath to end so that you can go and sin? Cheat people in business after Sabbath? Join unbelievers in jesting and joking after Sabbath? Go fornicate and commit adultery after Sabbath? Anxious for the Sabbath to end! So that we can go and do the wrong things we couldn’t do on Sabbath? It is wrong to be a believer during worship and an unbeliever after worship. Be consistent. It is wrong to attend worship while anxiously waiting for it to end!

Isaiah 58:13 (NIV) – “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, IF YOU CALL THE SABBATH A DELIGHT and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

Anxiety suggests that the Sabbath is not something delightful to us. Anyone who doesn’t treat the Sabbath as a delight, is breaking the Sabbath. Anxiety on Sabbath is as good as Sabbath breaking. 

Anxiety when prayer has to be made, nullifies that prayer for you. Others may be blessed but you will not be blessed. Anxiety to have prayers end quickly or worship end quickly is a sign that you are not participating.

There is anxiety of organizer to make worship timely and good. But the problematic anxiety is that which wants worship to end so that we can rush to attend to something else.

Worship organizers should be careful not to make people anxious. Unnecessarily long programs create anxiety. The sick need to eat in a timely way and take medication. Children get irritable as time goes. Seating at the same spot for long becomes tiring. Quality of a sermon or worship is not in its length. Persevering a poorly organized worship without a known end isn’t a test of faith. Long disorganized worship reflects on the incompetence of organizers. Don’t make people anxious at worship! However our focus is on those who are anxious for worship to come to an end!

It may not be on a Sabbath day, but prayers and worship takes place anywhere anytime. Are you anxious to see it end? Examine yourself and seek divine help. There is a serious spiritual problem if you anxiously want worship to end so that you go back to your business.

Dear God forgive us. Help us eliminate anxiety during any prayers and worship. Help us love and enjoy worship until at that hour all other interests diminish. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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