Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader…
Good morning, everybody. Well, here in Minnesota, it’s a cold morning. But we can be grateful for heat and all of those lovely things.
This season, step away and stay filled with the Spirit…
I was thinking because of the busyness of this season and not just the busyness in our schedules, but like in our minds and in our hearts, a lot of us feel grief and pain and happiness and kind of all of the things all at the same time in this season. It’s now more than ever that we need to stop and just get filled again. Because we pour out so much in this season and we should give. Our Father is a giving God, so we should give. But even Jesus went away and got filled again. So that’s what’s on my heart this morning, and I pray that as we worship, you’re able to just get filled all over again to do whatever it is you need to do today and in this season.
Pastor Heather…
I want to share what I had on my heart. Luke 8:22–25 in the New Living Translation.
“One day Jesus said to His disciples, Let’s cross to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and started out. As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap, but soon a fierce storm came down the lake. The boat was filling with water and they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke Him up, shouting, Master, Master we’re going down. When Jesus woke up, He rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then He asked them, Where is your faith? The disciples were terrified and amazed. Who is this man, they ask each other. When He gives a command, even the wind and waves obey Him.”
Let’s go to the other side…
I love that story because in the beginning, what happens? Jesus gives a word: “Let’s go to the other side.” And how many times in your life have you felt the “let’s go to the other side.” You have a word. You have a direction. You have a thing that the Lord is telling you to do, right? And so you start out thinking everything’s going to be perfect. It’s going to be smooth sailing all the way because that’s how the Lord would want it to be.
The storm comes…
And sometimes you get in the middle of obeying that word and what happens? The storm comes. And so here we have the storm comes and the waves and the water are coming into the boat and it says they were in real danger. So they were in real danger. We always picture it as just a little rocky and rainy. But the boat was literally ready to capsize.
“Jesus, don’t you care?”
So what happens? They’re waking up Jesus. And in one of the translations it says, “Don’t you care? We’re about to perish. We’re about to die. Don’t you care?” They’re waking Him up. And I know that there are a lot of people that are going through storms right now. And I want to encourage you. Don’t mistake God’s silence for not caring. Don’t mistake His peace for not caring or not knowing what your situation is.
When the turbulence comes…
If you’ve ever been on an airplane, if you’re like me, I do not like turbulence when I’m on an airplane. My hands get sweaty. I had an experience once where the plane dropped while we were in it. And so ever since then, when the turbulence starts, my palms get sweaty. I close my eyes. I pray in the spirit. And I just am like, “I’m good, I’m good. I’m fine. I’m safe. Everything’s okay.” We go into that “space.”
But one thing I do, and maybe you do this too, when it’s turbulent, what do you do? You’re looking at the flight attendants. Do they look scared? Do they look worried? Because if they do, if they’re running around and they’re throwing things, okay, we’re in trouble. Right? But when they’re calm and they continue to serve the drinks or if they’re just reading a book in their little jump seat, you’re like, “Okay, we’re okay, we’re okay. We’re okay.” Right? You kind of look to those people to gauge.
Look to Jesus: He is in control of the situation…
And so here you have Jesus, what is He doing? He is taking a nap, and He is not taking a nap because He doesn’t care. He’s taking a nap because in His mind there is no threat. They’re going to be fine. He is in control of the situation, though they don’t feel like He is. They want Him to get on their level and freak out and be worried and, “Ahhh, what are we going to do?” But He doesn’t do that, does He? He continues to sleep until they wake Him up. And once they wake Him up, what does He say to the waves? “Peace be still.” He had that authority.
“Okay, it’s crunch time…”
When I was giving birth to Noah, he was a big boy. He was 9.1. And so we are getting down to, you know, he was about to be birthed and I’m pushing, and the doctor looks at me. Noah’s heart rate was dropping. And he says to me, “Okay, if you don’t get him in this push, we’re going to go to a C-section.” Okay, it’s crunch time, right? But what does he do? He’s calm and he’s reassuring, like, I have confidence that this doctor is in control of this situation.
So I push.
And thankfully he came on that push. But Scott said, “Honey, I don’t know if you realize, but they were getting stuff ready. They were pulling machines, they were pulling stuff.” But all I saw was a very calm doctor, look in my face and go, “Okay. You’re doing great. Now we got to get him in this next push, or we’re going to have to do a c-section.” It’s like he knew the urgency, but also he knew I’m going to take his cue. If he’s like, “WHAT’S HAPPENING? COME ON, WE GOT TO GO! YOUR CHILD IS IN PERIL.” I mean, that’s not going to help me in this moment. Right?
Sometimes we feel like Jesus is sleeping…
And so I think sometimes when we’re going through trials, sometimes when that storm is coming and we’re obeying the thing that the Lord told us to do, but the storm is coming, the waves, the water is getting in the boat, and it feels like Jesus is sleeping, like He doesn’t care.
He does care.
But He is working…
But also He has that authority and He knows that He’s given us that authority to speak over those waves. And so don’t mistake His quietness for not being concerned about what’s happening to you. And if you’re in a storm and it’s quiet, you feel like you can’t hear heaven. Just know that He’s given you that authority. And though you might not hear or see Him working, He is working. And you have that authority. He’s given you that authority to speak over those waves and you don’t have to freak out and you don’t have to get scared. You don’t have to jump out of the boat. You stay in that boat, and you use the authority that He gave you.
“Peace be still.”
Jesus waited for the Father’s direction…
In Aramaic, He said, “Peace, submit to the will of God.” Jesus was never anxious or stressed. He was never driven by need. He was only moved by God’s direction. He always waited for God’s direction and His timing. And if He didn’t, maybe if He was looking for direction, what does He do? He gets away. He gets on the mountain. He gets alone with God. And why did He do that so much? Because He was getting His orders day by day.
Jesus was not reactive—He was purposeful…
And I love that He was not reactive. He was purposeful. And sometimes, especially in the holidays, we can get busy, we can get reactive. Something can happen and that reflex kicks in whether it’s good or bad. We all have coping mechanisms. We all have ways we handle things.
Fight. Flight. Fawn. Faint.
And sometimes in pressure, that instinct to whatever it is, fight or flight, what do they say? Fight, flight, fawn, faint… something like that. There’s all these different ways that we can respond. And some of us will fight. We’ll come out swinging. Others of us will flight. We will run away. We don’t want to face this problem. Some of us, I think fawn, which is like, you just freeze. You don’t know what to do. And then the other I think was faint, where it’s just like, “Ugh, I’m overwhelmed.” We check out. Right?
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray…
But Jesus was intentional. He was led. He didn’t hurry and He didn’t worry. Philippians 4:6–9 says, “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for what He has done. Then you will come to experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.”
And I go to this scripture often.
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all that you’ve learned and received from Me, everything you’ve heard and saw Me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.”
That word worry there can also be translated anxious. So what are we supposed to do if we catch ourselves worrying? We’re supposed to turn that into prayer. So if you think about it, worry is like a perverted form of prayer. It’s the opposite of prayer.
So if I’m praying about something, I’m speaking about it, I’m seeing it the way that God tells me to see it, and that’s what faith is. Having that eye to see the situation the way that God sees it. Worry is the opposite. I’m going to use my time, my imagination, my energy to sit and think about the worst-case scenarios. What if we can’t pay the bills? What if I get this doctor’s report? What if this happens? What if that happens?
But we’re supposed to do, what? Pray. Don’t worry. Pray. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give supplication, give praise. So when you find yourself tempted to worry, and I know during this season lots of things to worry about, from the small things of like, “I have two weeks left to do my Christmas shopping” to the big things of a family member just got a really terrible diagnosis right before Christmas. But in all of that—
Pray.
Trust.
Be still.
Know that He is God.
Be still and know that He is God.
He’s given you authority to speak to your situation…
And though it may feel like Jesus is sleeping in your boat while the waves are coming in, just know that that’s peace. He’s sleeping because He has peace and He’s given us that authority to speak in that situation. And it’s not because He doesn’t care. It’s because He very much knows that this threat is a perceived threat, but He has the authority at any time to speak over it if we allow Him to.
Prayed…
We thank you, Father, for your peace today. We choose to trust. We refuse to worry. We refuse to be anxious and to let the cares of this world weigh us down. We choose to focus on who you are and what you are capable of. You are a God of peace and you’ve given us all authority to speak over things, to move mountains. If we could just have a mustard seed of faith. And so now I thank you, Father. Remind us that we have more than a mustard seed of faith inside of us. We have more than that and that we can speak to any situation with boldness, knowing that we are not alone, that we have the authority you’ve given us to speak in situations, and that once you’ve given your word, we can rest.
