Greetings to you in the name of ‘a tiny gift, strangely wrapped and silently delivered’, Jesus Christ -THE Risen Saviour! What a beautiful morning in the Kingdom! I trust that you had a grand weekend with lots of adventures and misadventures to talk about and think about. I will be praying for you this morning, asking Father to fill you with a peace and anticipation on this week before Christmas.
All the preparations were done for our Sunday morning worship – the music was cued up, the song lyrics had been put in the computer, and it was 9:30 Sunday morning.The switches were turned on, the computer program was accessed, the background music was playing, the people were visiting around, the projector was turned on, and a message appears on the screen – ‘no signal’. Hurriedly the computer is restarted, all the appropriate measures taken, time is running out, and still ‘no signal’. Finally the problem is found – no connection …but there is no immediate solution and so adjustments have to be made…no lyrics to assist and what hymnbooks that were there did not match the music selections. It is now 10:00 and the people are ready…and a little restless. What to do?
So the worship leader steps forward and announces that there is a problem, outlines what it is, and makes a provocative challenge: “We have two choices. Number one we can grumble, complain, get angry, criticize, and be miserable. Number two, we can praise God and worship him – the songs are known to us, we can sing what words we know, and hum through the rest. I can safely say that the second option was decided upon and God smiled on us, sending his presence to us in generous amounts. I have heard it said that you cannot be pitiable and powerful too.
Reflecting upon the morning I thought to myself – we can get everything ready to meet with God…Bible open, devotion book ready, maybe even a notebook, ‘spiritual music’ playing quietly, a cup of coffee, a comfortable chair, whatever we need…but if we don’t have the right connection, the right ‘signal’ available we won’t be able to make immediate access to God’s presence. What we always need to access God’s presence is – thankfulness, praise, adoration, worship, humility … over and over again in the Bible we are reminded and encouraged and commanded to come before God in those ways.
I don’t even want to think how our Sunday morning worship would have happened if option number one had been chosen. I have tried to follow this principle on a daily basis – before I enter into the day that God has made for me…I chose my attitude, my mindset. When I get it right my day goes better and is more enjoyable. When I get it wrong my day is…not so good and has to be endured.
Have a good day…be blessed!