Attitude Check? Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

As an assistant youth pastor, one of my favorite parts (if not the favorite part) of my job is leading worship. We have a youth worship service every Sunday morning, do a short worship set before Wednesday night small groups, and tend to salt and pepper all of our events with worship whenever possible.

As much as I love leading people in worship, it can be physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding; and sometimes, I just don't feel up to it. But, over the years, I've found that I can respond to my lack of feeling in one of two ways. I can say, to myself, either:

A. "I don't feel like leading worship, but I'll push on and do my best."

or

B. "I don't feel like leading worship, so I can have even more confidence that God is the one leading worship."

It is incredibly humbling to see the vast difference that my team and I experience when I choose B instead of A.

Have you let God work through you this week, or have you tried to do it on your own?

The Mouths of Babes

Matthew 21:12-15

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.' " The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.


Perhaps one of the more famous stories regarding Jesus is the story of him clearing out the moneychangers in the temple. This story is one of my personal favorites. Why? Well, I believe that the vast majority of people that make a habit of sitting in a pew on Sunday morning would call this angry Jewish man a sinner if they did not already know that it was Jesus.

This story serves many purposes, but one is to show us that, as followers of Christ, there is such a thing as righteous anger. Also, this story turns the church's policy of saving face on its ear.

For me, this week, there is a more important element to this story. As we read the story, we see that Jesus, the Christ, completely unleashes on the moneychangers and essentially mops the floor with them. However, the scripture says that it was not until the religious teachers (read: hypocrites) saw the children praising His name that they became indignant.

This is just one story that illustrates the power of children's praise. As I watch the children of Cokesbury praise their God, I can't help but think how depressed Satan must be that another generation of God's children are fearless in praise and constant in prayer.

I have been truly awed.