Saturday, March 28th

Bonus faith challenge this week.

My final encouragement, in our response to worship is; worship and prayer aren’t about changing our circumstances, even though they may. Worship and prayer are about changing us and those around us.

Notice the power of this passage, especially according to their circumstances.
Acts 16:22-25- 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

I don’t know about you, but if I was in that situation, I’m not sure if my first response would be to pray or sing hymns? I think I may respond with whining, wondering why God forgot about me, if he loved me I wouldn’t be going through this, maybe even making excuses or blaming others for the circumstances I was in.

Yet, for Paul and Silas, in the midst of their circumstances, they were praying and singing hymns to God and notice what else was happening? It was making a difference to the other prisoners. There is power in our worship, especially when we worship in the midst of chaos.
Your worship, in the midst of your storm, can be a blessing to others. It isn’t lip service, it isn’t just going through the motions. It’s crying out to God, growing in trust and waiting on him.

Then notice what happened during their prayer and worship time. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

Their worship opened the prison doors and broke the chains free. Powerful story, and yes their circumstances changed, but it also led to the salvation of the jailer who was going to
kill himself because he assumed all the prisoners had escaped. Instead, Paul and Silas led the jailer to Christ, not only him, but his entire family (keep reading in Acts 16).

Worship, giving worth-ship to God, opens closed doors, sets the captives free, gives sight to the blind, and opens the ears to the deaf.

Not only in our song, but in our lives, when we seek worship within our life, we connect, surrender, and respond to the revelation of who God is and what he wants to do in us and through us, it changes things in our job, in our relationship, in our family.

Worship isn’t just us to God or for us and for God. Worship is for God and his kingdom.
Notice this devotional reflection from author Skye Jethani. “Modern Christians tend to unknowingly carry the values of our consumer culture into our faith. Therefore, we can assume that the reason we gather for worship is for our own benefit. We think Sunday is supposed to be a spiritual pep rally that gives us a boost of encouragement before the week starts. We assume it’s a service created by the church’s leaders for its members, and we judge it based on how we feel when it’s over. That’s how consumers think of worship. As the people of Jesus Christ, we stand as the bridge and mediators between God and his world. In that role, we carry the praise, prayers, and pain of the world up to God, and we transmit his presence, healing, and grace back to the world. Too often, we limit this responsibility to a few people on a platform or in a pulpit, when the truth is that we are all called to the world in worship.”

How do you need to step into worship differently? How do you need to grow in worship? Have you seen your worship reframed, if so how? What steps do you need to take?