~ INC Pagsamba Convo with my sakop Jan24-2026 (Saturday) ~
Me: Kuys! How’s pagsamba kaninang 6am?
Kuys: super blessed po.
Me: How…?
Kuys: felt super grateful!
—
Insight:
Not the dramatic kind—the kind that announces itself with declarations or resolutions—but the quieter, less visible kind: waking up early, dressing in pressed clothes, walking into the same place, week after week, to do something that offers no immediate reward except presence, faithfulness, fulfilling what is expected of us, as servants of Him.
Inside the Iglesia ni Cristo, this act has a name: Pagsamba. Worship.. Devotion - isang tungkulin.
That was it - Just gratitude. Which is precisely the point.
The discipline of regular worship does not always produce revelation. Sometimes it produces something far more subtle: emotional recalibration. A re-centering of perspective. A reminder that the week is not solely defined by deadlines, pressures, or private anxieties.
In a culture obsessed with results, worship asks for presence instead of outcome - we call it, "ihandog ang sarili, bilang isang haing buhay at banal".
Most people arrive tired. Some arrive distracted. Others arrive carrying burdens they do not articulate. The act of showing up—physically, mentally, emotionally—becomes the real offering. Not eloquence. Not understanding. Just willingness... to feel the Holy Spirit.
Over time, something shifts.
The space becomes familiar. The rhythm becomes internal. The teachings begin to land not as information, but as orientation. The words no longer feel external; they start to feel like reference points for how to live, how to respond, how to endure.
Consistency builds meaning the way repetition builds muscle. Slowly. Invisibly. Reliably.
It is easy to underestimate this in modern life, where spirituality is often treated as emotional on-demand—something accessed when needed, ignored when inconvenient. The INC structure resists that impulse. It insists on return. On showing up whether the mood is present or not.
This is where gratitude emerges.
Not the loud kind. Not the celebratory kind. But the quiet kind—the kind that settles into the body..., and soul, that is indescribable, something profound and fulfilling. The kind that arrives after sitting still long enough to remember what matters. The kind that does not come from excitement, but from alignment of higher purpose, and the divine.
The question “How?” was logical. The answer “felt grateful” was not analytical. It was experiential.
And that’s what consistent worship really does. It doesn’t necessarily solve problems. It reframes them. It doesn’t remove hardship. It places it in context. It doesn’t change life’s conditions. It changes the internal weather.
In a world that trains people to chase intensity, worship trains something else: steadiness.
To keep coming back.
To keep listening.
To keep aligning your inner life with something larger than your immediate concerns.
Gratitude, then, becomes less a reaction and more a habit. A state cultivated through repetition. A quiet byproduct of presence and yearning for more... of the presence of the Almighty.
Not because every service feels extraordinary. But because consistency slowly teaches the soul how to notice what has always been there.
Sometimes, the most profound spiritual experiences do not arrive as revelations. They arrive as simple sentences, spoken without drama: “Felt super grateful.”
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