In the first part of this post, I talked about a struggle that believers often feel with praising God when things aren’t going our way. Today, I’m talking about a struggle that is harder to recognize, but still common for many of us.
Praising God When Things Go Well
Frankly, this struggle doesn’t have as many worship songs written about it, but in my experience it’s something most of us deal with.
In a life surrounded by wonderful people and things, my usual instinct is that I feel like I deserve basically none of it. God built me in such a way that my flaws and failures are very present in my mind most of the time. I spend so much time focused on my failures that it’s usually quite natural for me to give God credit for the good things in my life.
It may not be as natural for you, and I can understand why. God expects us to take charge of a lot of things in our lives, and it can be tempting to look at the parts of our lives that are working well and see our own hands all over it. I absolutely do this. When I write a song or make a webpage or pay my light bill, I’m pretty proud of myself. I took the steps to make it happen.
Just like we do when things are normal, we are going to overlook God’s provision in the days to come. Here are a couple of truths to help us with that.
Truth: All good things come directly from God
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” -James 1:17
On the other side of COVID-19 is something resembling a normal world, and when it comes, I can assure you that it was not human ingenuity that made it possible.
Even in the thick of this mess, God’s gifts are abundant. The lights in our homes, the food in our bellies, and the abilities we have to stay connected to each other are all gifts from God. We spend so much of our day taking God’s gifts for granted, or worse, attributing those gifts to ourselves.
Believer, as the world seeks community from afar, there are more eyes on us than we realize. This not only a time to remind people of God’s promises to bring us through the storm- it is also a time to reflect on the many ways that God has seen fit to provide for us as it still rages. As the world watches, do not neglect to make much of God and to continually praise Him for what we have.
Truth: Our faith comes from God
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12:1-2
Our hearts are sinful. We are prone to turn away from God. It is important to remember that when we don’t do that, when we give God credit and trust in Him to see us through hardship, that our faith itself is a gift from Him.
God created us and He gave us the capacity to believe in Him. If that isn’t a good reason to lay down our pride and give God glory in worship, I don’t know what is.
Praise God
We will have so many opportunities ahead of us to be better worshippers than we were before COVID-19. We get to display to our children, to our community, and to the world that God is mighty and worthy of praise.
And beyond just setting an example, just like always, when praise erupts from our hearts and out of our mouths, it goes straight to the heart of God. Our worship is precious to Him, for it brings us closer to Him.
He loves us dearly. Let’s remember that as we worship in the weeks to come.