During the course of this Sunday Spice, I hope to focus all of us on praising and worshipping God. That sounds good when things are going well around us. How easy is it to say thank you Jesus for all your blessings … for all of the good things in our lives?? But what if things are not fine? What if our focus is distracted by troubling times; by life’s pressures; even by depressing darkness? And we all know about those times! The one encouragement we can always rely upon is that in spite of changing times and evolving cultural deviations, God does not change and He does not become less worthy of our worship. But do we have the ability, the capacity, to give Him the praise that is due Him, even when things do not seem conducive to do so? Let’s talk about that …
I was struck by a preacher’s emphasis on the three letters P.O.W. in a sermon I heard. Typically, we know those letters to stand for Prisoner of War. And I have personally heard many horrific stories of men who lived to tell of their captivity in World War I, World War II, and Vietnam when I was a part of a ceremony celebrating the lives of those P.O.W.s, and others of those who had passed away. We also took time to remember those who are still MIA … Missing In Action. Anyway … the minister I heard challenged my thinking to make POW mean Person of Worship. So how do we make it through the night and anticipate the joy in the morning? My go-to is to spend time worshipping God even when things are not going well. This is understood as learning to worship even when it’s dark.
Psalm 137 reads
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!
Even when Israel found themselves in captivity, their captors, the Babylonians required that they sing. These enemies may have been making the request only to mock them, but such a demand helped Israel to focus. Life had become bad enough for Israel that they had chosen to hang their musical instruments in a willow tree (a sign of weeping and depression). But in spite of facing these situations they came to realize that they must not forget to sing; to worship, to praise, even when they were far from home and in captivity. Even when they were in the dark.
On the other hand, I am of the perspective that these Babylonian tormentors, maybe even certain tormentors in the world around us, look to see if we have the ability to deliver our faith even in the darkness. They want to hear and see our joy, our love, our resolve for righteousness, even our worship and our praise. And they, too, assuming we can prove ourselves victorious overcomers, may long to also know the object of our worship in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now think about that!
When victory seems far away there is a reminder in a popular brand name that victory can be re-established. Nike means victory and the theme of this corporation is “just do it.” Michael Jordan was their spokesperson (Air Jordans). Boys bought those in hopes of flying through the air like Michael. As a Bulls fan in that era … he definitely had the ”just do it” way to victory! This “just do it” mentality might also lend us some encouragement. If we will just step up and do what must be done, whether it be small or great, there is in God a sense of promise toward attaining victory.
Now this part is very close to my heart … My sister’s name was Victoria (we call her Vickie) and that name means victorious spirit. Since my name, Tammy, means twin, I feel fully justified in relating to Vickie and claiming a victorious spirit as well.
Life should be lived in such a way that we make our contribution, leave our impact, so that when we are gone our life finds a way to keep on going, and the seeds we planted keep on growing. Just like my sister, Vickie, did. Why? Because even in the dark times we find the grace to worship Him and live for Him as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so. That kind of resolve has a way of reminding those who we leave behind of the value we place on both the One we worship and the wisdom He gives for daily living.
As I prepared these thoughts I ran across this song by Zach Williams. Listen to this excerpt.
Song by Zach Williams: “I got an old church choir singing in my soul; I got a sweet salvation and it’s beautiful; I’ve got a heart overflowing cause I’ve been restored. There ain’t nothing going to steal my joy. There ain’t nothing going to steal my joy.”
This sounds like the kind of resolve needed to attain the victory of which I speak.
Another excerpt I ran into during this time included an interview at Liberty University with Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in the movie Passion of the Christ. Listen to this excerpt of him from his presentation at Liberty. He starts off quoting Ronald Reagan and then makes his own comments.
Jim Caviezel: “Do you and I have the courage to say there is a price we will not pay? There is a point beyond which evil must not advance. It would go on to say that evil is powerless if the good are unafraid, well, you and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this the last best hope of man on earth or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. And it’s been said if we lose this war and in so doing lose this great way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those that had the most to lose did the least to prevent it from happening. Well, I think it is high time now that we ask ourselves if we still even know the freedoms that were intended for us by our Founding fathers. Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom exists, not to do what you like, but having the right to do what you ought. And that is the freedom that I wish for you. Set yourselves apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints. You aren’t made to fit in; you were born to stand out.”
“History will record with the greatest astonishment that those with the most to lose did the least. . . Set yourselves apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints. You weren’t made to fit in; you are born to stand out.”
Those who can find the victory to worship God and live for Him, especially in dark times, will be the ones who establish the standards for the champions we all hope to become. This will mandate that we not do the least, but, instead, do all we can to hold corruption at bay. Thus, instead of disengaging from the process that all victories demand of us, we, instead, do all we can to make the needed impact to become heroes to our generation.
If we are not standing out in this world today … perhaps we are not standing up to this corrupt generation … we certainly have a lot to lose, if we don’t stand out. Let us begin by being POWs (People Of Worship) … “just do it” … so we’ll be victorious spirits!
I’m Tammy Reneé, and this is Sunday Spice. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed are the people who take refuge in Him!
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