these are my notes from a breakout session with Laura Story. she is from Perimeter Church in north atlanta.
2 truths: we are called to worship. life is hard.
when your life gets turned upside down, there comes a point when you realize that getting derailed is now the new path.
Gen. 22 tells the story of Abraham nearly sacrificing his son, Isaac. what is your Isaac? what is God
calling you to surrender?
Worshiping in the midst of trials:
1. Our response. how do we respond in the midst of trials? we come as we are. sometimes worship is like exercise. painful but good for us. it is good to tell God how you feel, and then Psalm 13 end with what we know to be true. as a worship leader, i can sing the truth whether i feel it or not. we need to sing what we know to be true and trust that our heart will follow. music is the best way to mourn. it provides repetition, and there is a community aspect to worship. it is a great reminder of future glory.
2. Count it all joy. James 1. we all want to be mature and complete, but don’t necessarily want to go through what it takes to get there. even in the darkest trials, there is something to be thankful for. to know the power of the resurrection AND the fellowship of His (Jesus’) sufferings.
3. We comfort others with the comfort we have received from God. II Cor. 1:3-5.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
What trials might God bring into your life to better equip you for His work? we need to worship through trials. if we can’t, then we don’t really have faith. we worship before a watching world. Psalm 27:13.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
faith and worry cannot exist in the same space. Romans 8:26-27.
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.
God is very economical in the way that He never wastes any of our experiences.