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Can we be honest? We will not always feel like worshiping God. We will not regularly feel like giving him honor. We will not continuously desire to say and show Him that we love Him. But we have to moment by moment make the decision; will I give in to how I feel? Or will I give God the glory and praise He is due in spite of my “not feeling like it?”
I am used to the state of euphoria. My personality is described as “bubbly,” “infectious,” “sunshine.” But lately, that has not been my state of being. As I struggle through these days of waking up unhappy that I have done so, I have to make a choice, will I give God praise in the emotional wasteland? Or will I wander in the desolate place in numb observation of the fact that I am there?
When you go through a spiritual low, do you choose to stay there? Or do you rest, and then fight your way back to joy?
Not the sense of “happy” or “euphoria” per se. But the state of “I will recognize the value in the promise to which God has called me in Christ.” That promise is life.
Maybe you don’t have Christ in your life as your personal savior. Let me take this moment to encourage you to consider accepting Christ in your life now. How?
1) A simple acknowledgment that you have said, thought, or done something that is not pleasing to God.
2)Acknowledging that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins
3) Ask Jesus into your life as your personal savior.
If you’ve done this just now, I want to congratulate you! Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior is the best decision you or I could ever make in this world!
Having Christ in my life has made every weighted day worth living. Knowing that any hell I go through on earth is the only hell I will ever experience, allows me to tread the waters that are trying to drown me. I can take a breath, and I remember that I am not, in fact, treading water. Christ is holding me in his everlasting embrace of love, guidance, safety, and comfort. This hold is so secure and sure.
Now for the days that we don’t feel like praising God, or we’re emotionally dry and feel distant from Him, I have a prayer guide that I heard recently in a sermon.
ACTS.
Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. Supplication.
Adoration:
Take time to tell God that you love him. List the attributes of God that you know. Something like “God, I love you. You are Jehovah-Jireh, my provider. You are Jehovah-Shalom, my peace. My personal favorite, you are Jehovah-Nissi and Jehovah-Rohi, my defender, and my shepherd!” It renews your life and desire for life to reflect on God and who He is. Who He is, will always be a more reliable source than our feelings, for giving Him praise.
Confession:
Take time to tell God how you’re feeling. How you’ve been thinking. What you’ve done. (Here’s a scary one) What you haven’t done. Remember; not only can God handle this part of our prayers: He desires to work them out!
Thanksgiving:
Use points from adoration and confession to start your prayers here. It is a personal understanding that everything God is; he grants me access to that attribute. To rely on it, to embody and walk in it. He is peace, as I walk in Him, so am I! With confession; we can always give thanks for the new mercy that God grants us every day!
Supplications:
Simply put: cast your cares on Him! From the smallest thing to the most significant thing. God did not die for us to work things out alone. He gave us direct access to Him so that we would not have to.
All of this is to say:
Decide to have the faith to trust God, to praise God, even when our feelings don’t line up with that choice.
Scriptures to consider:
•Psalms 71:15
•John 16:33
•James 1:2-4
•Philippians 4:6-8