Hope Fellowship Blog

Day #5 Live with a Mission: Worship

Read Job 1

One of the lessons I am trying to learn in parenting is to try and empathize more with my daughters when they are deeply distraught about something that I can’t quite understand.  It’s tempting for me to think when the lost blankie can’t be found before bed or when the doll that they love was forgotten at a friends house that they just need to calm down and get over it. But if I’m honest, I’m really no different when it comes to being upset when something I care about is lost—I’m easily distraught and distracted and find myself having a hard time worshipping God throughout the day as I ought.  When things don’t go the way I have planned or in the way that I want, how is worship even possible?   In times of disappointment and grief worshipping God can seem like the last thing we want to do.  

Job is helpful for us because he is a good example of someone who was a worshipper even in the midst of pain and loss.  When his day didn’t go the way he planned (which is a major understatement!) he responds with trust.  When Job heard the devastating words that he had lost his property and that his children had died we read, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”(Job 1:21,22)

Worship and grief in the mind of Job were not competing activities.   Job turns to God and bows down in worship before him at the moment of deepest pain and when it would be most likely for him do do everything but worship.  But Job trusted in the goodness of God even when he didn’t understand why he was suffering.  Job recognized that God alone was the one who is in control when everything he knew was in chaos.  

Since the gospel is at the heart of our theology and our lives we are enabled to worship even when we are distraught. We can worship this way because we are shown that God does care about our difficulties and trials because he sent his own Son to enter into humanity and pay for our sins.  We see the goodness of God clearly in God the Father sending His Son for our salvation.  We can also see how the gospel enables us to worship because God never changes.  His love was demonstrated clearly in Jesus, he will never change the way in which he relates to us.

Live with a Mission Today:  Since we are called to be worshippers at all times, how can we prepare ourselves for the day when we hear horrible news to worship?  Remind yourself of the gospel, that God sent His Son to pay for our sins and give to us his righteousness which enables us to walk faithfully each day no matter what it brings.    

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