He will keep you strong to the end, so that
you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called
you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
1
Corinthians 1:8-9 NIV
Sometimes I don’t feel like worshipping.
Sometimes I don’t feel like engaging with the
promises that God has spoken over my life, the song choice for the day or the
prayers being prayed. Sometimes I don’t feel like lifting my hands and
submitting to the will and good purpose of Jesus. Sometimes I don’t even have
it in me to see a brighter future.
What do we do with those days where there is no
strength left to worship? Where there is no foreseeable end to the difficulty
and pain that we're walking through and worshipping God seems like the last
thing we feel like doing and the last thing that could help us actively solve
the problem at hand?
What I love about God is that He understands all
of this.
He doesn’t
get mad at us because we don’t feel like worshipping or because we don’t know
the right words to pray or sing.
He loves us regardless.
I also love that God doesn’t just leave us in our
emptiness, deficiency and grief. He pulls us through and out and puts us in a
new place, with a new song in our mouths and a new vigor to worship Him.
But it’s not in our own strength that we find
this new will to worship and praise God for all that He has done.
It’s
through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that we find strength to
keep going, keep singing and keep worshipping my Creator.
Sometimes we have to encourage our own
hearts and souls to trust in God. We have to push through the agony of the present
moment and dig deep into the well of promises that God has deposited into our
hearts—clinging to them like our lives depend on it.
Even David had to redirect his heart at times and encourage his soul to remember the promises of God.
Why are you so downcast, o my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. - Psalm 42:5-6 NIV
David didn’t just wake up one day and have the
will power to lead His spirit towards the goodness and faithfulness of God.
The power and presence of God in him was the
thing that He was able to draw on, lean on and pull from when He was
experiencing extreme grief and isolation.
It’s comforting to know that even on our worst
days, God has promised long before we were born to keep us strong to the end
and be the strength that we do not have. It’s really hard when we feel like
we’re the only ones struggling with finding joy during a worship service or
finding it hard to find the good things happening in our lives.
It can be lonely, incapacitating and draining to
feel like we’re the only ones battling our feelings of not wanting to worship.
But when we step into the light and truth of what
God has declared over our lives in community with other believers, there’s no
room in our hearts for those false truths anymore.
A mentor once told me that the words “me too” are the most
powerful and transformational words in our language. When we identify with
someone else who is walking through the same struggle in life, our mindset is
changed and the loneliness doesn’t have a hold on us anymore.
The power of silence is broken and we get to lean
on our brothers and sisters to walk through life with us.
The beautiful and powerful thing about God is
that He is always able to reach into the depths of our souls and bring joy and
goodness to light. God is always ready to step into our darkness and our
desolate situations and turn on the light, illuminating everything.
He’s like a Father that is right down the hall in
a large house. When we feel afraid or paralyzed by the darkness, He is quick to
walk into our room and turn on the light, illuminating His face and the reality
that He is near and in control of the situation.
His presence brings a comfort and security that
nothing else can.
I’ve found throughout my own life and through
observing the lives of others, that there are always going to be times where we
don’t feel like worshipping. There are always going to be times when we don’t
see the full picture, so the devastation we feel in the present moment clouds
our thinking. And because we are human, we are unable to see how we will make it through difficult situations.
But God always sees the end result. He is the one who walks with us through these struggles.
His strength and joy is accessible to all of us
who call on His name. He promises that He will come through for us and will
reach out to us if we allow Him into our hearts.
…’You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord. - Jeremiah 29:12-13 NIV
He is our Sustainer and Rock.
Take heart because He will never let you down.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. - Psalm 18:2-3 NIVAllie
ameade@b4church.org
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