a beautiful reminder

Last night was a beautiful reminder of the power of prayer and God's skill at using us when we are at our weakest. Lately I have been battling fatigue and spiritual warfare, and by the time I reached this week's GroundZero I was full of dread. Normally I would characterize GroundZero, our weekly youth worship time, as the highlight of my week. The previous mentioned battles, however, had me feeling zapped of all energy and overall reluctant to stand before a room full of youth and youth leaders.

Before rounding up our praise team to do my weekly routine of praying over them and their time of leading us in music, I grabbed a couple of friends and asked them to pray over me. After they spent a few minutes praying with me, I headed out with the praise team. I took a deep breath as to say "here we go" and begin the weekly prayer time. As I begin to pray, I felt that strength and movement inside of me that can only be credited and described as the Holy Spirit. As my mouth moved, the words that flowed seemed to not be my own and I knew that God was in control.

God filled me with the energy I needed and was faithful to give me the word's needed to deliver the weekly devotion. I cannot measure last night's success in the absence of public decisions or by the absence of complements. Humanly, we think that those two things are the mark of "a good service." Instead, I have to acknowledge what God did in me last night and remember that the results are not up to me. Trusting that God is at work can be difficult when we cannot measure it in the tangible form we hope for. But when we are willing to take our blinders off, we see His beautiful reminders...