Have you ever ended up somewhere that you had no intention of being and you thought to yourself, “How did I get here? This was not what I had planned. This was not how my night, my week, my month, my year was supposed to turn out.” And yet, you found yourself in a situation that you had no control of.

Immediately, I knew something was wrong and found myself in the emergency room with a severely fractured tibia bone.

I have been there. Not long ago, I found myself in that spot. I was playing laser tag, a seemingly harmless game, or so I thought, with our church leadership team, when boom! I collided with one of my teammates and fell hard to the ground. Immediately, I knew something was wrong and found myself in the emergency room with a severely fractured tibia bone.

It was not exactly how I had envisioned my night going. No, I had pictured my team, The Yellow Lightning, taking home first place. I did not picture spending the evening in the emergency room. And on top of that, finding out that my life and mobility would be extremely disrupted for the next several months.

Responding to Trials and Difficult Times

Trials and difficult times are a part of life. We all walk through circumstances when we think, “Where did this come from? How did I get here? This was not what I had planned.” During the difficult parts of life, the primary issue is not diagnosing how you got where you are, but rather how you are going to respond to what you are facing.

There is a story in the book of Acts centered around two guys named Paul and Silas who faced a very unexpected trial. Their response is a great example for you and I to follow.

We find their story in Acts 16

²⁰“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. ²¹“They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.” ²²A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them to be stripped and beaten with wooden rods. ²³They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. ²⁴So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

They were on a mission to spread the gospel when they were suddenly and wrongly accused…

Paul and Silas had recently made their way to Philippi, the leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. They were on a mission to spread the gospel when they were suddenly and wrongly accused by an angry slave owner who was irate that Paul and Silas had taken away his income by delivering his slave girl from an evil spirit.

The slave owner stirred up a mob against Paul and Silas, saying they were creating mass confusion in the city. They persuaded the chief magistrates (the Roman authorities of Philippi) to sentence Paul and Silas to severe punishment, forgoing a proper hearing, and giving Paul and Silas no opportunity to defend themselves.

Choose to Respond with Praise Even When It Doesn’t Make Sense

After being severely beaten, they were thrown into the inner most part of a prison – most likely a damp, dark, smelly, prison cell with no possible way of escape. They had no idea what the morning would bring. They had no idea how long their stay in that prison would be. This sounds like an incredibly horrible situation to me.

So how did Paul and Silas respond? With fear? Discouragement? Frustration? Anger? No, it was quite the opposite. Acts 16:25 tells us, “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”

Was this kind of response due to them being delirious, or was it a commitment Paul made long ago? It is the latter. Paul had determined to let prayer and praise be his response no matter what he was facing.

And we see this in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18a (NIV): “Rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances;”

The Apostle Paul, one of the most foundational leaders of the early church, who wrote over half of the New Testament, walked through some very difficult trials but yet in all of them, he chose to praise and pray his way through anything he faced in life. What? That’s incredible!

Praise Prepares the Way for God to Work

Although it says they were praying and singing hymns, in the Greek, these two actions are connected. What does that mean? It means that their prayers were prayers of thanksgiving that turned into songs of praise.

Yet in their extreme discomfort and agony, they chose to praise their God.

Imagine Paul and Silas in their prison cell, singing at the the top of their lungs! Stop and think about this for a minute. We can breeze past this story so fast and not fully understand the gravity of what they were walking through.

Their circumstances caused them excruciating pain. Their backs were bloody and bruised from being harshly beaten. They were thrown into a dark and filthy cell. Their legs were in stocks, meant to invoke severe pain by spreading the legs as far as they could possibly go. Yet in their extreme discomfort and agony, they chose to praise their God. How is that possible? It’s possible because they both understood that praise prepares the way for God to work, and as a result, see powerful things happen.

God Loves to Show His Power in Response to Praise

As they began to praise something happened, something supernatural.

Acts 16:26 says, “Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!”

Did you catch that? An earthquake happened out of nowhere. The prison began shaking to its foundation, all the prison doors immediately flew open, and all the chains fell off of every prisoner. Those types of things don’t just happen, they are a result of the supernatural power of God.

God wants to show up in the midst of your trial, your prison cell, and display his supernatural power to you.

I encourage you today to start praising your way through your trial. Replace your worry, your fear, your frustration with praise. I promise, as you do that, you will see God do what only he can do! He will turn your prison cell into a place of praise.

Psalm 34:1-3 NLT
“I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the Lord;
let all who are helpless take heart.
Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
let us exalt his name together.”

I’m a reserved person by nature, so when I began grasping what the Bible says about worship, I will admit, it made me very uneasy. When hearing passages such as Psalm 95:1-2 (MSG), “Come, let’s shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns!” I thought: “Oh that must just be for all the extroverts, the out-there people who don’t mind the attention. If I’m not feeling that way, then it can’t be what God wants me to do. After all, God created me this way, so He knows what I am capable of bringing.”

Fortunately, I had a pastor who not only taught me about biblical worship but also called it out of me, helping me understand that worship is not about how I feel. Rather it is about passionately praising the Creator of the Universe the way He prescribes in His Word. Worship is an act of obedience. It is not about me and what makes me feel comfortable but rather about Him and the praise He deserves.

Worship is not about how we feel

In his book entitled, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson writes:

“Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshipped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.”

Worship is about passionately praising the Creator of the Universe the way He prescribes in His Word.

No matter what your personality type, no matter what you are feeling in a particular moment, enthusiastic worship is biblical. It pleases God when His children praise Him with ALL that is within them. And the reality is that God responds to His people when they worship Him by releasing power and freedom in their lives. Passionate, full-on, out-there kind of praise is a powerful tool against Satan. Not only that, but there is freedom as we let go of our thoughts towards ourselves and set our hearts on who God is and all He has done. Out of this mindset, joyful celebration erupts, and there is freedom as we “RAISE THE ROOF!”

Worship is acknowledging who God is

 Ps 100:1-2 (ESV) – Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness. Come into his presence with singing!

 Ps 66:1- 2 (ESV) – Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!

 Ps 149:3 (NIV) – Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.

 Psalm 150 (ESV) – Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

God supernaturally responds to the praise of His people, and in fact, worship prepares the way for Him to move here on earth.

These are just a few of the hundreds of passages in the Psalms that call us to passionate, enthusiastic worship. The feel and tone of these verses are one of excitement not one of somberness or quietness. Words like “joyful noise” (Ps. 100), “shout for joy,” “glorious praise” (Psalm 66) or “with dancing” (Ps 149) set the tone of our call to worship.

The Psalmist goes on to say in chapter 150 that we are to praise God with basically everything we can find that makes noise. For example, “loud clashing cymbals!”, “tambourine and dance,” and “praise Him with strings and pipe!” He drives the point home further, lest you think this be a passage just for musicians, to include this call to praise for “everyone that has breath.” If you are breathing oxygen on earth right now, God’s desire for you is to praise Him enthusiastically with every fiber of your being.

Why?

God deserves it – our worship is a recognition that our God is awesome, powerful, majestic, holy, loving, Good, and worthy of all praise! We worship because of our understanding of who God is.

Worship opens the door for the miraculous to happen

In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, faced a hopeless battle against his enemies. Before the battle, he put the people appointed to sing in front of the army. When they begin to praise, God set an ambush on their enemies, and Judah won the victory.

We see this principle again in Acts 16, as Paul and Silas are imprisoned in a Philippian jail. The Bible tells us that after they were praying and singing hymns to God, there was an earthquake and the prison doors were opened, setting them free.

Note in both of these circumstances, the victory did not come until after they started worshiping. God supernaturally responds to the praise of His people, and in fact, worship prepares the way for Him to move here on earth. As God’s people step out in obedience of joyful praise in spite of their circumstance, heaven touches earth and miracles happen.

Worship draws us closer to God

The fact of the matter is a high price was paid so that we can worship God uninhibited by the law of sacrifice of the Old Covenant. That price was the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s one, and only Son, on the cross. Through His death and resurrection, we now able to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16 NASB)

As God’s people step out in obedience of joyful praise in spite of their circumstance, heaven touches earth and miracles happen.

True worship is the moment when every thought transfixed on your Creator says with the songwriter, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” It’s the moment when you realize every care or concern you have of self is worthless in comparison with His great light and love.

I remember back when I was a shy, self-conscious teenager and I raised my hand in worship for the first time. It was hard. I thought everyone around me would think I was strange and that they would stare at me. But it was a first tiny step of obedience in worship, and I was never the same. At that moment, there was freedom as I realized worship is not about me. It’s all about God.

The funny thing is that God in his providence saw fit that one day I would lead people in worship, that I would get to be like the Psalmist declares in Psalm 42:4 (MSG) “at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!”

Let me tell you; there is great joy to worship God unashamed and to watch as God’s church experiences the fullness of His presence. Maybe you are naturally reserved in personality like me, and the thought of passionate worship makes you very nervous. It’s okay. Take that first step. Take God at His Word – raise the roof, and watch what He does!