2024. It's hard to believe we are already almost through the first month of a new year. Changes seem to be happening at a faster rate than they used to - although that may simply be a figment of my imagination, or growing older and being more aware of the need for time. Suffering also seems to be increasing, and I am not the only one who has commented on that recently. Uncertainty is now a fixture in the human emotional make-up. The last few years have added that to our constant struggle. One thing 2020 taught us is that while we knew in our minds that we did not know what the future held, we didn't really believe it. Now we do.
Worry is like a cloud always on the horizon, somewhere off out of the corner of our eyes - and often, without warning, we are enveloped with it, and it becomes the fog of fear. Uncertainty is like evaporation, vaporizing confidence which then creates the cloud of worry. I find myself enveloped in worry without being initially conscious of it. Somehow, once I recognize that worry, the fog of fear thickens. If allowed to remain, that fear will cause confusion (what direction am I going?), questioning (why is God allowing this?), despair (God isn't listening, or answering anymore!), and a multitude more.
So what to do? I have found in my recent reading through the Word of God that worship is one of the keys, if not THE key, to victory in all these our struggles! In the book of Judges, every time God came through and defeated the enemies of God's people, it was when they worshipped Him. When God answers prayer in the book of Acts, it is when God's people worshipped Him.
All throughout Scripture, answers to prayer, deliverance from enemies, provision of need, healing of all kinds happened when our Father was worshipped. When I am worried, I need to worship. When I begin to ask God "why" and whine about my challenges, I need to deliberately stop and worship Him. How do we worship?
That is the learning process I am working through. I know that the Bible tells me that singing is worship, prayer is worship, tears are worship...but I am asking Jesus to show me more how to really and truly worship Him..."in spirit and in truth." ( John 4:23) Join me in the lesson of replacing worrying with worshipping!
~ Katherine