The good news is I've started several blog posts today, some of which might end up being really great. The bad news is, I've struggled all day finding the right words to finish them and I've come up empty. I was looking forward to being on vacation, thinking that it would be easy to sit down and share some thoughts about worship and devotion. Maybe my mind is simply swirling with too many thoughts to keep them all straight.
As I started and abandoned post after post, I kept thinking, "I don't know what to say." I may share with you some insights someday from a sermon I heard when visiting another church this past Sunday, but not today. I will probably also write about how to worship when you feel stuck, or when you are stuck and don't even realize it - just not today. Everything I started to write seemed helpful, I suppose, but it still felt empty.
I think this is how we feel sometimes when we come together on Sundays to worship God. We sing the words and pray our prayers and listen to the scripture, but our souls are restless. It's like when you call a friend and start talking when they answer the phone, only to realize you are talking to their recorded voice mail message. "Hi, this is God. Thank you for your worship. To leave a prayer request, please press 1 now..."
This fresh struggle reminded me of this promise of scripture, as if it were written just for me in such a time of weakness:
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." - Romans 8:26-27
When you find yourself in a place where nothing seems to make sense, cry out for the Spirit of God to intercede with words beyond what our human minds can comprehend. When your Bible reading is dry or your time of worship feels empty, let His Spirit lift you higher. Sometimes when you don't know what to say, I think the best thing is to say nothing at all.
"Lord God, I praise You even when I feel I have nothing left to give. You know my deepest thoughts and prayers, so I offer these up to you. Though I cannot form the words, I praise you still, and I worship you in the Spirit. I trust that you will fulfill your promise, though my human emotions betray me. I lift up your name in a dry and weary land, and I pray that you would fulfill your will in my life. Let it be so, Lord. Amen."
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