God's Plan For Good In My LifeSample

As we ponder yesterday’s story of Paul and Silas, we question how do we give God control?  How do we place our confidence in God when so much chaos is happening around us, or so much hurt has happened to us? The first answer is in expressing worship. Paul and Silas were able to worship in spite of their dire circumstances. How? Why?

For some of us, our faith experience has been just listening. We listen to the pastor on Sunday, we read the stories of scripture, we listen to what others think about those stories. But we all come to a point in our journey with Christ where an expression is so important -- what we say to him. “God, this is how... I see you; this is who I know you to be. I’ve heard and read enough stories in scripture to know I can trust you. I’ve actually experienced you never leaving me.   And so I’m going to express that to you now, Jesus, in this dark prison cell; in this dark cave I’m in.” That is what Paul and Silas are doing, and it leads to the remarkable! It leads to the space of good. It leads to what happens when God is in full control. 

If you are new in your faith, you may not think you have a history of God showing up over and over, proving himself to you. This is one crucial importance of Scripture. We’ve been looking at what happened with David, and now it’s happening with Paul and Silas. Worship is actually something that every human does. Worship is as natural as breathing air.  Everyone worships.  Everyone worships something. You can’t help but worship. You were designed to be a worshiper. You are worshiping something right now, whether you know it or not. In your mental energy, in your relational life, in your financial life, you are worshiping something. I remember years ago reading another pastor’s definition -- “Worship is your response to what you value the most.”  Worship is your response to what you believe in the most. Some people worship what they fear, or their loneliness, the mistake from their past, the pain or hurt they've experienced.   Worship is what you give most of your mental energy to. Most of your time, most of your brainstorming, most of your emotional energy goes toward what you worship.  

If you’re not worshiping Jesus, trusting in His love and plan for your life, chances are you’re worshiping something of the chaos of the pandemic, or something of the loss of control that you’re trying to retake. Or maybe it’s a fear or an insecurity in your life. When you worship anything other than God it means you are saying, “no thank you” to His control.  When you submit to God’s control, you are actually giving him permission to work his plan and power.  You’re opening the door to say, “I don’t know exactly what your plan is or what you’re doing in this moment. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I know you’re doing something that ends in good. Because it’s who you are, I’ve seen you do it too many times in scripture and in life to not believe it. When I invite your control, you always end up working something good in my life.”