Shifting Heaviness with Praise

2020-03-25

Shifting Heaviness With Praise As Christians, who have the privilege of praying for everyone at this pivotal point in history, we can often feel the weight of the world on our shoulders as we watch the news or hear reports of what’s happening with the Corona virus outbreak. This is how I was feeling last week - and it felt really heavy. As I was talking it through with God, here’s what He had to say and how He turned it all around. I spoke to a close family member whose medical specialty will put them ...

Shifting Heaviness With Praise

As Christians, who have the privilege of praying for everyone at this pivotal point in history, we can often feel the weight of the world on our shoulders as we watch the news or hear reports of what’s happening with the Corona virus outbreak. This is how I was feeling last week - and it felt really heavy.

As I was talking it through with God, here’s what He had to say and how He turned it all around.

I spoke to a close family member whose medical specialty will put them on the front lines of looking after patients who are very ill - and the facts of their circumstances look dire. As they poured out their heart to me, I could feel the hopelessness and fear in their voice, and it all was all too real. Things don’t look good.

We’re all navigating the balance between wisdom and faith at this time, and so I’ve chosen to get my information from credible sources and keep myself topped up on what God is doing in the midst of it all. But this one hit me for a loop. Now the rubber hits the road for my family. As we finished talking, I felt so overwhelmed with the gravity of the situation that I just burst into tears.

Over the years I have asked Holy Spirit to help me be aware of what is happening in, and around, me. As He made me aware of the weight of the heaviness I was feeling, I began to ask Him what was going on.

“Lord, what's going on? Why, the sudden crying and feeling of despair and hopelessness when I was feeling OK 10 minutes ago?”

As I was thinking it through, Holy spirit brought a scripture to mind that talks about a ‘spirit of heaviness’ - and I knew what was happening! I was experiencing the effects of that heaviness.

I jumped onto Google and typed in ‘spirit of heaviness’ and saw that it referred to Isaiah 61:3. I opened my Bible and saw the answer that He was leading me to. The way to get out from under the heaviness was to replace it with a garment of praise.

I asked, “Lord, what does a garment of praise look like in this situation?”

I remembered that I love to sing along to worship songs, so I went to my playlists and chose two songs that specifically mention the word ‘praise’.

I turned the volume up and with tears coursing down my face, I sang out my praise to God from the bottom of my heart and with all my might.

I sang through my fear.

I sang through my dread.

I sang through my feeling of helplessness.

And, because it’s not possible to sing praises to God and the atmosphere not shift, I found myself with a huge grin on my face by the time I was done.

The facts of the situation were still very real, but the Truth of who my God is, had become my reality.

I found myself in total awe at what God had done for me. The way He had turned my tears into joy and my heaviness into praise, in just 10 minutes.

So, I encourage you to…

Be aware: Ask Holy Spirit to help you be cognizant of what’s going on so that you don’t have to sit under something that’s not yours. Let the posture of your heart be one of relying on Him to help you be aware of all that Heaven has to bring to the situations you’re in. He loves to help!
Talk to Him: God loves it when we ask Him questions, so that we can hear the wisdom of Heaven about a situation. What He has to say about things is way bigger and better than anything we can think of ourselves, so why not take Him up on the invitation to talk it through?
Follow His Leading: Whatever you hear, see, remember or feel as you talk to Him, follow the trail of breadcrumbs that He leaves. You can trust that, because you’re doing this with Him and relying on Him to lead you (Pro 3:5-6), that it’s Him showing you the way.