September '23 Devotional
Pain. I REALLY don’t like it. I go to great lengths to avoid it at all costs. We are entering into a study on pain here at RFC, and it reminds me why I am so thankful to be working with worship and NOT having to preach the sermons.
Why is that you might ask? Well, I don’t have an “answer” to pain. While Pastor Scott will most certainly approach this difficult topic with scriptural insight and wisdom, I find the subject of pain a tricky one to address. Most responses to it are in-genuine, and I certainly don’t want to hand a shallow answer to a deep hurt.
And so, I find myself leading worship instead of giving sermons, which is perfect for me because worship IS the answer. It is always the answer. It is the answer to pain, joy, confusion, temptation, depression, breakthroughs, betrayal, new beginnings, communion, and fellowship. It heals hearts, helps us forgive, cleans our mind, strengthens our souls, focuses our spirits, and reminds us of who we are and WHOSE we are. Literally, every area of our life and every season of our life is lifted when we live in a state of worship.
Elie Wiesel wrote a play that depicted a true event that he experienced in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. While in the concentration camp, the Jewish rabbis decided to put God on trial to determine His guilt in the attack on Jews. After much debate, they finally pronounced God guilty. They then asked the lead rabbi what they should do, to which he responded, “We should pray.”
Worship isn’t the answer to the “why” of pain, but it is the answer to how we need to respond. You see, He has “planted eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11b),” and worship allows us to connect with eternity today. Some of you might not enjoy singing, and some of you might have others around you who REALLY do not enjoy you singing. Worship isn’t just about singing a song at church. It isn’t the clapping and the noise.
Worship is casting our minds to Him and allowing Him to breathe His life back into us. What that looks like can be complete silence, reading scripture, singing, raising your hands, walking in the majesty of His creation, or simply telling Him that you are listening if He should choose to speak.
And that is the truly, unbelievable, amazing, and dumbfounding thing. He DOES speak. To us. He directs us and guides us. He calms our souls.
“Oh God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name, I will lift up my hands (Psalm 63: 1 – 4).”
Tammy Bullard,
RFC Worship Leader