Effective Worship

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

~Mark 12:30 NIV

God calls us to worship Him with all our strength. But He also asks us to worship Him through weakness.

I struggled and prayed while on the treadmill one morning. For eighteen months, I had been hoarse from the medication I had taken for asthma. As a worship leader, I was grieved that I no longer had the gift that had brought me such joy. I missed worshipping God with music. So, I cried out to the Lord, asking Him to return my voice.

God’s response was swift: “Until now, you have worshipped Me from your strength. Now I want you to worship through weakness.”

As I finished a strenuous workout, it dawned on me. As I struggled with my weakness on the treadmill, something I disliked, God received the denial of my flesh as worship. I had done it to honor Him in my body. And earlier, when I had encountered someone difficult, He had received my held tongue and kind response as worship, too.

Be a Living Sacrifice

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

~2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

In our strength, we offer glory constrained by our ability. But in our weakness, God’s power rests upon us, and the glory He receives far exceeds our limitations.

Paul said, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1 NIV).

God doesn’t just desire our feel-good worship. We delight Him every time we sacrifice our will for His. Our obedience is the highest worship. Through our pain, humility, and struggle, we take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). As we glorify Him in and through worship, He lifts us (James 4:10). What a wonder that, even in our sacrifice, we are rewarded.

How can you learn to worship God through your weaknesses?

Father God, Your grace is all I need. Your power works best in my weakness. So, may I gladly boast about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power can work through me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Genre: Non-fiction

Copyright 2023: Worship Through Weakness: Julie Souza Bradley Lilly: All Rights Reserved