Today my message topic is “Worshiping When You Don’t Feel Like It”. Sometimes God seems a million miles away. Sometimes you can’t sense the presence of God. You pray, but nothing seems to happen. Things may be going wrong in your life, but God doesn’t seem to be around. Just like the lady in our picture, you feel all alone and it’s a rainy, blue day. In those times, you don’t feel like worshiping God, you may even begin to feel like God doesn’t care about you.
A lot of people don’t believe that God cares about them at all. Others believe that God only cares about them when their lives are going well, but if things are difficult, evidently God doesn’t care about them. In the Bible, David sometimes complained that God seemed distant. NLT Psalm 10:1 O LORD, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most? Have you ever felt that way? You’re in trouble, yet God just doesn’t seem to be around. You can’t feel His presence and things aren’t getting better in your life. You don’t feel like worshiping at those times, do you?
Some people draw away from God and church when they begin to feel that God is not helping them and they feel that God’s presence is remote. However, that is not the right choice. To run away from God when you don’t sense His presence will lead to disaster. When you feel low, when you feel like God is out there on a galaxy light years away, God wants to teach you about faith. God wants to teach you about continuing to worship, about continuing to trust, about continuing to do the right things even when you have no experience of God.
NLT Psalm 143:7-8 Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die. Let me hear of your unfailing love to me in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I have come to you in prayer. Here David is depressed, God seems far away, so what does he do? He prays, he trusts and he draws near to God in prayer. He worships even when he doesn’t feel like it.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my April 2, 2006 message entitled Worshiping When You Don’t Feel Like It