It’s easy to worship God when He’s blessing our lives, when things are going well, and when we’re all smiles. But when the bottom falls through and the storm hits, it can be a different story.
Whether your storm is a diagnosis that confirms your fears, or a physical or financial disaster that you can’t see a way out of, or something you never anticipated would happen, God is still in control. Scripture tells us He is good and cannot act apart from His nature. So, you can grow and flourish in a storm if you choose to worship God through it.
Here are a few ways to worship God -even in the storm:
1. Focus on Who God is, not on what He is or isn’t doing
When we focus on the facts of Who God is, worship flows. He is passionate, faithful, good, and upright (Psalm 25:6-8). There is no malice in Him” (Psalm 92:15). He is gentle toward those He loves (Psalm 18:35; Matthew 11:29). Those characteristics of God have nothing to do with our circumstances. That means regardless of what you think God is doing or not doing, He can be trusted. And He is worthy of worship.
All through the Psalms we see King David have a commitment to praise God through every one of His struggles.
Our feelings and fears can crowd out the facts of God’s Word, but focus on the facts of who God is, not our feelings. Focusing on the facts of God’s Word that tell you He will never leave or forsake you (Hebrew 13:5), and His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). When we choose to keep our eyes on Who God is, we become less consumed with our plight and whether or not God’s meeting our expectations. When we know He is trustworthy we can say like Job: “Though He slays me, yet I will trust in Him” (Job 13:15). Even though I am in the storm, I will worship Him.
2 Praise Him for the opportunity to become more like His Son
Romans 8:28 tells us “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” People say that “everything will turn out alright in the end.” Yet the “good” that God causes to come about from “all things” (even our suffering ), is clarified so beautifully in Romans 8:29,
“For whom he foreknew, he also predestined, Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified those he also glorified.”
God allows us to endure suffering so that, through our surrender and worship, He can mold us and refine us into the perfect image of His Son.
God wants our eternal good, more than our earthly or temporal good. And our eternal good is whatever makes us more like Jesus. We don’t become more like Jesus through sunshine and happiness. We get to know Him as “We walk through the valley of the shadow of death” and “fear no evil” because “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). We become more like Jesus as we deny ourselves, take up our cross daily (the cross is a symbol of suffering.), and follow Him” (Luke 9:24). If you find yourself in a storm worship Him as the only Obe who can ultimately stop the storm, but also as the only One who can make you more like His Son through it.
3. Sing to Him daily
This one is a little more difficult when you’re in pain, emotionally or spiritually. Yet scripture exhorts: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:18). In everything sing.
Anyone can praise God when life is going great, but it takes true surrender and pure worship to sing to Him in your pain and to lift up His name when you’re carrying heavy burdens. You can worship God even in the storm when you choose to sing.
4. Proclaim His goodness to others
There’s something about verbalizing the goodness of God that cements it in our heads and hearts. Even if you aren’t receiving it yet in your circumstances, tell others of the way He’s watching out for you, and calming your heart. As you speak of His love and faithfulness to others, that praise brings you into His presence, where there is “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).
Testify to His goodness in hand-written letters, emails, or social media, but don’t write eternally long posts that elaborate on your trials and end the conversation with something like, “God is good, all the time.” proclaim God’s goodness more than your grievances. As you do that, you are showing others you worship God for Who He is, not because of what He had or had not done for you.
5. Look for new blessings each morning
Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3 of his misery in the first 20 verses. Then he recalls what keeps him worshipping and waiting on God for his deliverance,
“It is because of the Lord’s loving-kindness that we are not consumed because His compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him” -Lamentations 3:22-25
Scripture promises the mercies of God never come to an end; they are new every morning. Watch for them. Anticipate them. And praise God for them whether you actually see them or not. The sun rises, the birds sing, air continues to flow through your lungs, you heart continues to beat. There is always something to be grateful for and a myriad of reasons to worship Him. As you worship and anticipate His refreshment of your heart – you will find all you need. Jeremiah 29:13 promises: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me will all your heart.”
6. Praise Him for the ‘secret treasure’ of knowing Him better
Job, who endured the big storm of any of us will ever face (apart from what our Savior endured on the cross), came out of his intense suffering with a much deeper, more intimate knowledge of the sovereignty of God. His testimony before God restored his health and possessions was: “I know that You can do all things, and than no plan is impossible for You” (Job 42:2). Yet the true treasure of Job’s suffering was not the restoration and multiplication of all the possessions he had before , but the intimate knowledge he gained of his God, as he evidenced in his words in Job 42:5: “I have heard of You; by the hearing of the ear; but now my eyes see You.”
After Job’s suffering, he had experienced God intimately, and seen Him in a sense. That is something that rarely happens unless when we’ve walked with Him through the darkness of a storm. Perhaps that intimate knowledge of Him is the secret treasure God was referring to when He told Isaiah in 45:3, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
Praise and worship Him, in the midst of your storms, for the treasured privilege to know Him in a way that few others do.
From Pity to Praise 