Would you be able to worship during the difficult times?
Hard times are unavoidable. They are going to come eventually. There will be a day when the choices you have made and your responses to God will be tested. When that day comes, how will you respond? Will you compromise and despair? Or will you lift your hands and your voice and worship God?
Job was tested to the core. In one day, he lost everything – his property, his herds, his servants and his children – all destroyed in the blink of an eye. Throughout one horrible day Job was pummeled with one tragic story of loss after another. The final blow came in the news that all ten of his children had been killed in a windstorm.
Job 1:20-22 tells us how Job responded to the most devastating news anyone could hear, “Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, ‘I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!’ In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.” Job’s response was amazing. In the midst of trouble, he worshipped!
Notice that Job grieved. He tore his robe and shaved his head. That’s what people did in Job’s day to express deep grief. He felt the pain. But instead of becoming angry or bitter at God because of the pain, he poured the brokenness and the pain out to God through worship.
Job’s experience brings up a question: Would you still worship God if everything in your life was going wrong? It’s easy to worship when everything is going right. The ultimate test of faith, however, is whether you will still worship in the difficult and painful times. Job chose to worship in the midst of his pain. You can make the same choice today that, in every situation, you will still worship God.
Everyone will face times of testing. That’s the time when it really matters that you have already made up your mind to worship God no matter what. Back when Job had his good health, when he was raising his children and watching his blessings increase, back before the testing came, Job had made up his mind that he would worship God in every situation.
Right now is the time for you to make up your mind to praise and worship God no matter what circumstances you may face. As you pray and fast, you condition yourself to respond to difficult times with worship instead of anger, with praise instead of bitterness. Even in a crisis, if you fast and pray and seek God’s face, you will feel God’s love and comfort and you will receive the wisdom and strength you need to endure and overcome.
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