Choose to Worhip

​A couple of songs have been rattling around my head the past few days, coming to my mind as I’ve considered all that is happening in our city, our nation, and the world.  My wife and I enjoy collecting memes as we find them throughout the day and sharing them with each other at the end of the day, and of course a recurring them for the past few months has been the growing realities of the COVID-19 Corona virus.  Whether it is masks, vaccines, ventilators, politicians, or quarantine behaviors the ongoing pandemic permeates every aspect of our culture…  to be sure, we don’t need clever picture captions to be reminded that the world is a stranger place than we thought it would be at the beginning of the year!
 
Through it all, I’ve been reminded of the same two song… “I Choose to Worship” and “The Joy of the Lord,” both by Irish worship leaders “Rend Collective.”  Both songs hold a similar theme: though there is uncertainty, doubt, and even in fear I will still worship.  Our strength is found not in confidence in the circumstances around us but in the unfailing, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God.
 
Here in Colorado Springs, we are looking at the possibility or returning to our “Safer at Home” policies given the COVID numbers in our county.  After having some of those restrictions lifted or eased in the past month, I am certain that I am not alone in looking at that possibility with no small degree of frustration.  Perhaps that is why God is bringing to mind these two songs for the “soundtrack” playing in my head.   Our strength and confidence is not found in the certainty of tomorrow but in the certainty of the Cross and the God of our salvation.  What fear should I have for tomorrow when I know who holds tomorrow in His hands? 
 
My prayer for myself, my family, my church, and believers throughout the nation and the world is that we find Joy, we find confidence, and we find courage in knowing that God is in Control.  My prayer is that we do not choose to fear, do not choose to speak hastily, do not choose to give in to the anxiety-filled world around us but that we Choose to Worship.  We choose to remind ourselves (and others) that in a world of Chaos we have a God of Order.  In world and culture that is becoming increasingly hostile to one another, we serve the Prince of Peace that brings Unity through the Cross.
 
Brothers and Sisters, we are not given a spirit of fear but one of power and love and self control as we rest in the truth about our world and about our God that is found in His Word (2 Timothy 1:7).  Rest in the Truth, rest in the God of Truth… Choose to Worship.
 
For His Glory,
-Pastor Zach