Worshipping through the night

What is the first thing you want to do in the midst of pain?

Run away? Stay in bed all day? Hide out?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says “Be cheerful no matter what; Pray all the time; Thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”

Wow. If only it was that simple huh?!

I think God tells us to do this because He knew we’d want to do the exact opposite. He knew we’d feel compelled to mope around and let sadness over take us, but I also think He knows that we can’t live like that because we would never enjoy life. If every time we went through hardship we sat around in our own misery we would never move forward. We would never grow from hard times, instead they would hold us back. And He sees the bigger picture, He sees the beauty of your life on the other side of the mess. He wants us to so badly enjoy our life to the fullest that He challenges us to continue on through pain so that we can experience all that He has for us!

Being grateful in the midst of trial doesn’t mean denial. It means having hope.

It means not getting stuck. It means not magnifying your problems to the point of life not being worth it anymore. There will be good seasons and there will be hard seasons, but if you give up in the bad you are going to miss out on what’s to follow. Allow yourself to feel the pain, open up, see what you can learn through the pain and grow BETTER instead of bitter. Think about it this way, if you never experienced sadness you wouldn’t get to experience the true beauty of joy. If you lived in a perfect world it wouldn’t be perfect at all. It would be boring. We would never gain the passion to love or help. You would never get to grow all the layers to you. Be thankful for your trials because they make you who you are. They give you opportunities to better yourself. They give you the chance to gain a deeper perspective, a deeper reasoning. As painful as it feels in the moment, this is what is on the other side. The quicker you learn this, the quicker you will glide through hard times. All thanks to hope. All thanks to Jesus. All thanks to knowing that no matter how much it hurts right now, it will have a meaning. Because God says it does.

There’s a song I’ve been listening to called “Even when it hurts” by Hillsong united and a line that completely jumped out to me was “I will sing until the miracle comes”

Gosh. Do you sing until the miracle comes? Or do you walk around whining about it. This is right where I’m at in life so this felt like a shot going through me.

It was like God saying Alesha do you really trust me? Are you going to worship through the storm? Worship is such a beautiful thing. It is like my safety net. It always comforts me. But God also talks about giving a sacrifice of praise and I believe that is exactly what He is talking about. Not just worshipping and praising Him when things feel good, but offering Him praise when you don’t feel like it. When it is a sacrifice. That is when we experience the most out of worship. That is when we experience Him the most in our lives, when it’s something we have to lay down. Something we have to work for. When it has meaning and value behind it.

I hope that you will learn to run to worship just as naturally as that thing you would run to in the midst of pain, whatever it may be. It is the most uplifting, healing thing you can do. It should be your hideaway. Where you go to find safety. If you are finding that in anything else or anyone else you need to check yourself. You may need a shift in the placement of God in your life. He has to be the center of your world for Him to truly be able to use you to love and help people. So check your heart and make sure he is the number one thing in your life. And lean hard on Him when things get tough. Give Him the opportunity to be able to work in your life when things get rocky. Trust Him in every season. Worship when it's hard.

When you start to do this is when you will really start to see God do work in your life. When He sees the sacrifice you are willing to give and the faith that you have in Him, that is when He knows He can trust you with what He wants to pour out in your life. Because He wants to do a work in your life that only He can get the credit for, so that you will shine even brighter for Him. So that you will be able to reach even more people in this life.

Worship through the storms. Grow through the pain. And ultimately have faith, even when it's hard. You won't regret it, I promise!

#inspiration #worship #encouragement