CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 844

“Hard Worship”

Job 1:20 (ESV) Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

—————————————————————————————-

Sometimes worship is just plain hard.  The pressures of life and its trials seem to drag on without relief in sight.  It weighs on you physically and emotionally sapping your spiritual strength.  You may be a caregiver for a family member, child or parent and after years of pouring out your love and care with only brief moments of respite, you find yourself drained to the dregs and worship is hard to do.

You may be struggling financially on a fixed income and forced to seek seasonal employment during a time when you thought you would be able to rest from a life of labor and it is taking its toll on you physically and emotionally and try as you might, worship is hard.  Worship will be hard for largely two reasons.  For some it is because they have more religion than a born-again relationship with Jesus. They pridefully persist in allowing willful, unrepented sin to remain in their life which keeps them distanced from God.

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. – James 4:6

For many Christians worship becomes hard when their trials in the midst of a prolonged ‘wilderness experience’ blind them to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. They are no longer able to look up and see the pillar of cloud at the entrance to the temple of their heart.

And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door.- Exodus 33:10

Whether on the mountaintop when worship is easy or in the valley when worship is hard, it is the Holy Spirit, our Helper, who fuels our worship from within.

…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. – Romans 8:26

Worship is spiritual in origin, not physical.  We cannot physically work ourselves up into a frenzy of meaningful and true worship.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”- John 4:23

When worship is hard shut the doors of your mind that open to all the distractions and cares of this life.  Press in to His presence and allow the mind of Christ to prevail as you acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s presence.  When at a loss for words let the Holy Spirit intercede in true worship for you.  Read, pray, and meditate on God’s Word again allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and fuel your worship flooding your heart with God’s peace.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7