WORSHIP: THE MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON

Do not be afraid do not be discouraged.

Go out and face them tomorrow and

the Lord will be with you. 

2 Chronicles 20:17

Lately I’ve been thinking about what makes musical worship so special.

Why do we spend twenty minutes at the beginning of the service singing to God? How does this differ from going to a concert and singing along to our favorite songs we hear on the radio? Does God even care if I participate in musical worship time or can I just use that as a buffer in case I hit my snooze button too many times this morning?

I couldn’t figure it out on my own, so I started digging into the question and doing some research. As I was exploring it, I was reminded of a passage from 2 Chronicles 20 about a powerful king of Judah named Jehoshaphat. He loved God and he wanted to honor Him while he was in leadership.

One day, some of his men came rushing up to him and told him, “King Jehoshaphat! There’s a huge army coming for us and we’re completely out-numbered!” Instead of drawing inward and ignoring the reality at hand or acting like he was too great of a king for this to even be a problem, he immediately called all of Judah to start fasting and praying.

           

During their corporate prayer and fasting, God spoke and said that he would give them victory because they had honored him in prayer, fasting and worship:

“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow and the Lord will be with you.” - 2 chronicles 20:17

Here’s the part that blew me away. The next day, Jehoshaphat appoints a team of people to go out in front of the entire army, on the frontlines, and worship.

Now, if I was on the worship team during that time and my leader came up to me and asked me to go out in front of an entire army with a guitar for a weapon, I would’ve thought he was crazy.

But these guys didn’t. They were on board. They were prepared and ready for the action. They had been praying and preparing and were ready to praise God. These people had such a fire in their hearts that they knew that God had already given them victory over this battle.

The courage this gave them spurred them on.

They understood that the most dangerous weapon they could use against the enemy was praise and worship to God.

           

2 Chronicles 20:22 says, “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

It changed the course of the battle.

           

There’s something powerful that happens when we enter into the presence of God and start declaring the truth about who He is and what He has done all as one voice.

We’re involved in a very real spiritual battle, where an enemy is fighting for our souls every day. Because it’s not visible to us, we forget that it’s happening a lot of the time. Because we don’t really like the song or wish the band would be playing a different song, we feel like it’s not that big of a deal if we skip worshipping and thanking God through sung prayer.

But it’s so important.

King David wrote hundreds of prayers that he sang to God called psalms that were used as instruments to combat fear, discouragement, depression, loneliness, guilt, shame, being mocked, being threatened, betrayal, questioning his purpose, questioning his identity, insecurity, fear of death, despair, distress, anxiety, hopelessness, the list goes on.

He knew the power of worshipping and thanking God would be his secret weapon that would lead him to victory over whatever the enemy was throwing his way.

David instructs us to sing and praise the Lord. Even when we don’t feel like it. Those are the times when God is building something fortifying in our hearts that couldn’t be built there otherwise.

Psalm 33:1-3 says, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”

We are filled with God’s joy when we sing and praise Him. He takes the junk that’s festering inside of our spirits and replaces it with His goodness and peace.

Then we get to take that goodness and joy and use that as our most powerful weapon against the best the enemy can throw at us.

And here’s the spoiler.

With God on our side, we always have the victory.

With God on our side, we always have the most powerful weapon.

With God on our side, the course of the battle is always changed and there’s nothing the enemy can do about it.

Allie  
ameade@b4church.org