Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader Kathy…
So when the same Bible verse comes up in your devotionals probably three or four times, you stop and go, “I think the Lord is trying to tell me something.” So I’m going to share it with you because I think this is a message that a lot of us need.
This is 1 Peter 5:7 in the Amplified…
“Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].”
It’s not our responsibility—it’s His…
One of the devotionals I was reading this morning was talking about how sometimes it’s not necessarily that we’re holding the thing, we’re holding the outcome. We think the outcome of whatever we’re believing for, whatever we’re praying for is somehow our responsibility. And it’s not. That’s His job, right?
So whatever that thing is, whatever that outcome is, whatever that thing you’re believing for that keeps you up at night, we’re just going to give that to Him this morning.
Surrender is a place of worship…
And sometimes this feels like a weird place to start, but a place of surrender actually is a place of worship. Because it says that He is God and I am not. And I am very grateful that I don’t have His job. That is too big for me.
Prayed…
So whatever that is, Father, we give it to you this morning. We give you the outcome. We give you all the worries and concerns about it, that thing that keeps replaying in our heads. You are God and we are not. And we humble ourselves, and we surrender. We lay it all down.
Pastor Heather…
The theme: worry and anxiety…
It’s been interesting, a lot of messages I’ve listened to, a lot of just even Tuesday on prayer has been talking a lot about worry and anxiety. Seems to be the theme lately. And we do live in a very anxiety-ridden world.
Emily P. Freeman quote…
Just real quick, I’m going to read this quote. It was in a book that I read a while back from Emily P. Freeman. I just love this quote, so I copied it down. But she said…
“He weaves eternity into our minutes. Every day, He is creating minute after minute. And He hands us the grace we need for each day, each one as they come. Worry and anxiety show up when we try to rush ahead into the minutes that haven’t been made yet. And we try to manage the future inside a time that doesn’t even exist. And we wonder why it makes our stomach hurt.”
God is not bound by time…
And I love that so much. I mean, He creates time. He is not bound by time. So God has already gone into our future and prepared a way, it says. He’s gone into our past to preserve us from the harm of our past. And He’s with us in this minute. But He is “I Am.” As in “He is” now. Right now. And that is where He is moving in the present. He’s already gone out in the future. He’s already taken care of those things. But we operate in the present. With God. But what we try to do is, with our natural ability, we try to get out into the future and control and manipulate and move things around the way that we think they should be done.
But we are supposed to trust Him day by day for our manna, for our bread, for our sustenance. Remember the children of Israel when they went and tried to gather more? What would happen? It would spoil. So they had that fresh manna, that fresh provision from God every morning. And they were directed not to take more than they needed for one day. And when they tried to, it would get spoiled. It would go bad. Except on the Sabbath when He directed them to take more for that day so they wouldn’t have to work on the Sabbath.
A lesson in trusting Him…
So I do believe as we look at that, that’s just a lesson of trusting Him in the moment to provide day by day, moment by moment. Not that we don’t use wisdom, not that we don’t have a savings account, all those things. But when we get into the anxiety and the worry of it, that’s a twisted form of worship, a twisted form of us trying to control something that we need to release and give unto God.
I was thinking too as we were singing, “I’ll make room for you to move. Do whatever you want to.” And sometimes we sing that, and as we’re singing that, I just kind of pictured a lot of us saying, “Do whatever you want to, Lord, as long as it’s really good and it’s really great and it’s on my to-do list and it’s the way that I like you to move and it’s not uncomfortable for me. Do whatever you want to.” Right?
Just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not of God…
But I do think that we are in a day and time where things are uncomfortable. And just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean that it’s not of God. It doesn’t mean that He won’t provide His comfort in that situation.
Think of Joseph…
For instance, think of Joseph being sold into slavery, being in prison. Today we would be like, “Oh, they’re out of God’s will. That shouldn’t have happened. They’re out of God’s will…” But God had him there. He preserved him there.
Think of David…
He was crowned king, but he did not become king right away. He had to go through a lot of really tough trials, and he still honored Saul through all of that, even as he’s trying to chase him and kill him. Nowadays we’d be like, “Lord, this is what you told me. You said that I’d be king, so I’m going to have my little to-do list. These are the things that I need to do to get into power. These are the things that I need to do to make my ascent to the throne. And this guy is messing this all up.” You know? In our head, in the natural, we would have steps of what we would have to do. We would try to, again, “control the outcome.”
But what did David do? He stayed faithful.
What did Joseph do? He stayed faithful.
Think of Noah…
God said, “Build an ark.”
“What’s an ark?”
God said, “It’s going to rain.”
“What’s rain?”
And he’s being ridiculed, but he’s obeying. He’s in a world that was just so terrible and evil, and they’re ridiculing him and they’re making fun of him because he’s doing something that makes no logical sense.
Think of the disciples…
They followed so close to Jesus, and then when Jesus was crucified, think of the fear that they could’ve had in that moment, locked up in that room, hiding. Now their rabbi is dead. And He was supposed to be the Messiah. What?
But they trusted. And then, of course, after the resurrection, after the infilling of the Holy Spirit, they went out and they did these amazing things. But they had to face really tough trials.
Think of Paul…
What does he say? “I was shipwrecked. I took beatings.” All these things. Am I telling you to go out and be shipwrecked and take beatings? That’s not what I’m saying. All I’m saying is that we were given the Holy Spirit for comfort and power and why would we be given that if we didn’t need it, if we led a life that in the natural was so comfortable and was so predictable and we didn’t have any problems?
No. We have the Holy Spirit. We have Jesus. We have a Savior because we need saving. We have a Holy Spirit because we need a comforter, because we will be in uncomfortable positions. We have the Holy Spirit. We have that power speaking out because we are called to change things, to turn things around.
Sometimes you might be called to a hard place…
But if we’re never confronted with difficult situations or things that need to be changed and we’re in the natural and we’re trying to naturally make everything comfortable and naturally make everything the way that we want to be instead of staying in the hard place when we’re supposed to. There are times you’re not supposed to stay in that hard place. But sometimes He will call you to stand in a hard place.
And hear what I’m saying…
I’m not talking about sickness. I’m not talking about poverty. I’m not talking about those things that He’s given us promises. I’m talking about difficult situations. Sometimes you have to deal with a difficult person. You have to work at a difficult job. You have some things in your family that are difficult. He might have you in those places to make change. He might have you in those places to speak out and change those atmospheres and change those outcomes with the power of the Holy Spirit.
But at the same time, He brings that comfort—the comfort of knowing that even though it might be difficult in the natural, He is going to turn that around. And you trust Him in that place.
I hope this is making sense. I hope I’m delivering it in a way that honors Him. Because I do think sometimes we seek comfort. And that’s the thing that the Lord’s been dealing with me a lot lately is, how much do I seek comfort?
For instance…
If I’m in the grocery store and He says, “Talk to that cashier about me.”
“That’s uncomfortable, Lord. I don’t want to embarrass the cashier. I don’t want her to get in trouble if I talk to her.
Now there’s another customer behind me. That’s going to be really awkward for her, and I don’t want to put her in a bad place.” Those kind of uncomfortable situations.
But when we obey, when we do it… How do I know what she’s going through? She could have just gotten a cancer diagnosis. She could have just lost a child. She could have… fill in the blank. She could have been like, “God, I need you to give me a sign today. Otherwise, I’m done. I’m leaving this life. I’m out.” And what if I’m not obedient because I’m uncomfortable.
And so staying in a place that’s difficult, but you’re a light there. And you know God has called you to be a light in that place. But it’s draining. And it’s difficult because everywhere you turn, there’s negativity or there’s strife or there’s people saying things. Or maybe you work in a really worldly position. But God has put you there for a reason.
In uncomfortable situations, we learn to rely on Him…
Yes, there are times He’ll take you out of a situation. I’m not saying that. It’s all about being led by the Holy Spirit. But sometimes He will put you in an uncomfortable position. But as we rely on Him, right? It said, “In this world, we’ll have trials and tribulations.” But as we’re trusting Him, He’s going to give us the grace and the ability and the joy and the strength and everything we need to walk through that very thing that He’s called us to do that’s difficult.
So that was for somebody…
Even if it was just for myself. It’s for somebody but just receive that today. And as we go into prayer, maybe there’s some things you need to surrender. Maybe there’s some things He’s been kind of pushing on. Maybe He’s told you to start a Bible study and you’re like, “I don’t have time for that, and that would be uncomfortable, and that would be outside of my work hours, and that’s another thing I have to do. That’s another responsibility. That feels stressful.”
Maybe He’s called you to reach out and talk to a person that you really just don’t want to talk to or to forgive somebody you don’t want to forgive. All those things are uncomfortable.
We’re dead people walking…
But if we are fully surrendered to Him, I mean, we’re already dead people walking, right? We were already crucified with Christ. And how many times do I have to remind myself of that? Like, “Well, your opinion doesn’t really matter in this, Heather. If God told you to do that and you’re crucified, a dead person doesn’t have a say one way or another. So just be obedient.”
Do what He’s called you to do, because He’s going to equip you. The Holy Spirit is living inside of you. We’ve died. We were crucified with Him, so that He can live through us, not for our own selfish ambitions.
He’s in us for bigger purposes…
And there are things that you can do that bring you joy. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying I feel like sometimes our Christian walk has become too easy and comfortable. And I do think in the time that we’re in, it’s time for us to apply a little Holy Ghost pressure to ourselves to step out and to do some things that require boldness, that require courage. Otherwise, we have just a Holy Spirit living inside of us just to help us find a good parking spot. And He’ll do that, too. Or just to help us. “I don’t want it to rain today. I want a nice day today.” We just want everything to be just how we like it. And He’ll do those things, too. But He’s in us for bigger reasons, bigger purposes is what I’m trying to say.
But everything that is worth doing does come with a cost. There is a surrendering in there. It’s so worth it. The things that we have to lay down to get to the place that He’s calling us to, it’s so worth it. And all those things it says, that when we keep our eyes on Him, all those things will be added unto us. So all those things we’re worried about, all those things we’re trying to protect and control and make just how we want it, when we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and what He’s called us to do, He’s going to take care of all that. So what do we have to worry about?
