Worship Part One - Praising God though the Pain

"WORSHIP"

Is there picture or feeling this word brings to your mind?

 

Maybe you think of that feeling of awe when you experience

a breathtaking sunset knowing Who is Creator.

(I use the word experience because

knowing the beauty of it is something more than seeing.)

The smallness you feel when you stand on the top of a mountain

and look over the land below until it curves off the sphere of the earth.

Or that same feeling of smallness when you look up on a clear night

and know those sparkling specks are astonishingly gigantic balls of fire

 that are millions of light years away.

 

Maybe worship makes you think of the last time you were in church

singing about a God who left heaven and became man.

A man Who was wounded, pierced, and crushed for our sins. 

Maybe your hands raised in worship to this God

as you stopped singing because your throat was too tight

and a tear was slipping down your cheek.

These experiences are worship. 

These are beautiful times when worship is easy. 

When it just wells up because you know God’s goodness and majesty.

 

There are other times when worship is not easy.

 And yet we must worship.

 No, it will not look the same as the effortless worship that wells up in our souls.

 It is not painless.

These are the times when your heart is grieving.

 And still you trust the Lord’s goodness.

The times when your body is truly so weak and sick. 

And yet you believe God is faithful.

When life seems hopeless.

 But you cling to the Truth of the Word.

“Don't use your pain as an excuse not to worship;

you actually take your pain

and you bring it with you before the altar,

and you stand there with your pain and you say,

“Though all this is true, yet I will rejoice in You!”

 It is the highest form of worship that exists."

 (So sorry, I don’t know the author.)

I believe this. 

This is not mushy worship.

This is not a feeling that will leave when the singing stops.

This is where true surrender leaves you with peace in the pain.

Where yielding to God’s truth gives

hope that is deeper than the hurt.

 

I know personally the intense joy

of worshiping through the hard times.

 I know that it is not without pain.

Not without sacrifice.

 Not without total surrender. 

I would like to encourage anyone who might be

reading this while you’re going through your own sufferings.

Praise God right in the middle of your gut wrenching sobs.

There is nothing pretentious or artificial about this worship.

It is the real thing.

Worship Him for His goodness in the midst of your pain and weakness.

He is worthy of your worship.

Oh so WORTHY!

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually 

offer to God a sacrifice of praise

--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

Hebrews 13:15