You may scrunch you eyebrows at the title. But, let’s be honest with each other. How often do you go to worship out of obedience, but during the service your mind wanders? You just are not connecting that day. You don’t “feel” the Holy Spirit moving. Your body is perched in the pew and your money is in the collection plate, but that’s about it.
This past Sunday, our rector broke tradition. He admitted he’d hit a dead end in writing his sermon and at the twelfth hour, God intervened. He heard the holy whisper in his soul, “Don’t tell them about me, they know that. Help them experience ME.” Obediently, with a cracking voice and tears welling in his eyes, he stepped away from the pulpit and spoke the Truth God had planted in his heart, mind and soul.
He interrupted the normal flow of the service and asked us all to bend a knee and pray for a renewed experience of God–dwelling in us, equipping us, comforting us, and strengthening us with His Spirit so we could bring others to Him and stand together united in Christ, for each other and beside each other. Then we stayed on our knees and confessed our sins.
As we knelt, tears warmed my eyes. I felt a surge of gentle power flowing through each soul and into me. For a brief moment, we were one in Christ. One voice, one request, one humbled desire.
Of course, this is how it should always be in worship. However,our churches are filled with humans. We are all on different paths of the faith-walk. We all have sins lurking on the edges of our souls. We all have hurts, grudges, prejudices and preferences. You know, those things Satan loves to utilize in order to separate us. Often times it is more than pews which divide us into sections.
But on Sunday, in one church who is renting space in a strip center in southwest Fort Worth as we grow our congregation, Christ’s glory filled the place as we spontaneously prayed in obedience. Our strength was renewed and we soared. It is what our congregation needed–it is what we all need.
Don’t be fooled, dear friends. We in the U.S.A and Canada are not cushioned from the evil persecution that is flooding the Coptic nations. Just because we have “In God We Trust” on our coins or sing “God Save the Queen” doesn’t mean we have an invisible wall to stop the tsunami of hatred from crashing across our land. The first waves are already lapping at our shores.
Let us all bend a knee, often and united together and pray to renew our experience of what it is like to be true children of God, washed by the blood of the Lamb, and bolstered by His Holy Spirit. Let’s no longer think about God, but truly dwell in Him. For He alone is our strength, our comfort and our hope.
Where Did You Find God Today? 