Praise In The Unknown

A few years ago I had the opportunity to speak at my Bible College to my fellow ministry students and when they asked me I was so excited and yet terrified at the thought I’d be speaking in front of everyone including pastors from different areas of the church and classes. No pressure right? There were so many categories I could choose from and I wanted it to be something powerful that many could relate to, but how do you reach people in all different areas of life? How do you connect with an audience that has walked life some before you and some younger and still figuring out life? Many of the topics that I love to write about are how God brings light and purpose in our darkest past, present, and future selves and how He even did that in the Bible for his disciples, but my title for my message didn’t even come from a revelation of deep into the word, but from a Disney song!

As a preschool teacher, I hear Disney songs all time and I have to listen to countless songs one that came to mind was “Into the Unknown” in Frozen 2. Elsa felt alone and kept hearing an inner voice calling to her to take an adventure that would put her in danger and eventually call her into her true purpose and identity to become who she was created to be all along. When I think about my journey with Jesus it always begins with Him calling my name and asking me to follow Him no matter the cost and sometimes that is exciting and sometimes daunting not truly knowing what the unknown holds. This will always lead back to the question for all of us which is “Do you trust Him fully?” Do we understand that when we say yes to Him that He will call us out of our comfort zones and bring our most deep and meaningful stories with us to impact those who need to hear about Him and His faithfulness? One of the stories in the Bible that always encouraged me but also gives a very clear picture of how life sometimes brings us hardship is Acts 16:22-25. Paul and Silas were put through so much but look how they respond.

“22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrate tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safe. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners are listening to them.”

Jesus called Paul and Silas to minister to these people and they said yes to the call but were met with being stripped of their safety, being physically abused, and put into isolation where they would stay until their future was chosen for them. I can recall many times in my own life I felt unsafe, physically struggling, and feeling isolated by either my medical situation or even having to deal with the feeling of doing so well and then all of a sudden feeling like ten steps back from my original plans.

Can you relate?

Stripped of dreams and hopes.
Bruised and scarred by surgeries.
Imprisoned by my thoughts and felt abandoned.

When we allow the enemy to let us believe that we are stripped, beat up, and abandoned by God we are vulnerable to start believing God is not for us at all. That God put us here and allows us to suffer. But that’s not where the section of scripture ends. Acts 16:25 says that Paul and Silas began praying and singing hymns in the prison!

Just recently I had surgery that I am currently still receiving and with that has come many trials and hardships that have lasted for months. Nothing has gone as planned and there is nothing I can do with medicine or exercise that will make this go fast like I’m used to. I’m the kinda recovery girl that wants to get up and walk as soon as the surgery is done so I can eat and get out as soon as possible, but that is not what has transpired. Instead, I am learning that I needed to be stripped of everything in life and that is in all three categories I have forever in my head Spirit, Mind, and Body. I think these line up perfectly with what Paul and Silas were going through.

I have been stripped of any plans I had for 2023 and I am having to rely on Him daily to plan my day-to-day tasks in this recovery.

My body is bruised and scared right now and I am having to rely on His strength daily not knowing if I’ll be fully recovered at “my desired timing.”

The enemy has been whispering little lies that he’d like to imprison me in so that I don’t feel like I will make it.

During this recovery process, I reflect on a hospital night where I wasn’t getting any sleep and I had so many meds in my system that I felt all sorts of yuck! After tossing and turning I decided to turn my light on and put worship music on. At the time the words felt like nothing and it made me cry in frustration when I would hear the words out of the musician’s mouth declaring “Way Maker. Miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness” At that moment I had a choice to make. Do I sing these songs because I know the lyrics or do I sing them with meaning and belief? To shut out the lies of the enemy and to declare that even in my imprisoned state I trust the God who has taken care of me for years still is that God to me? The songs I kept on repeat were.

Jeremy Camp “I Still Believe”
Katy Nicole “In Jesus’ Name”
Anna Golden “Take It To Jesus”
Brandon Lake “Gratitude”
Bethel “Way Maker
Victor Mendoza “Remember”

These songs I knew by heart and I had listened to multiple times, but at this moment I had to sing not just in my head but out loud! I am not the person to sing out loud especially not in public but the story of Paul and Silas says they prayed and sang in the prison and the prisoners listened to them! Sometimes I think we think our adoration of worship is just for us, but I think my singing was not just for me that night but for those around me. The more I sang it wasn’t just to get the enemy out of my head but the start of prayer for those patients around me who may or may not have known or felt the presents of the Lord. Who knows who heard me? Maybe a nurse in the hallway but maybe it was for him or her who was keeping watch much like the guard in the prison that night. Who is God impacting when we obey and sing praises to Him?
We have the authority in Christ to break away from the prisons of our minds, the chains of pain, fear, and feeling of isolation. One of my favorite lyrics from Bethel is “I’m gonna sing in the middle of the storm louder and louder you’re gonna hear my praises roar!” (Raise a Hallelujah)

I gave this message to my Bible College and at the end of this message I was going to read the lyrics to this song, but the Lord stirred something so terrifying but so clear that He wanted me to sing that last bit of my message! This was not planned! Never would I choose to do this in my planning, but in obedience I sang. That was a breakthrough for those students as well as something special for me that I’ve never forgotten but the power of worship lead the rest of that chapel service to a time of response. Worshiping after that message was a time of relief but a time of being in awe of God.

God has given us all the ability to worship Him in many different forms. Singing isn’t the only act of worship. Maybe you like painting or drawing and your art is what you see God doing. Maybe it is in dance and you’re movement draws you closer to Jesus. Writing is a form of worship for me and being able to share my heart and what He has done for me through words and singing on occasion just for Him is how I connect with my heavenly Father.

Praise in the Unknown is truly beautiful when we can inwardly know that our God is all we need even when everything is stripped away.