I have been following the US elections and I must say today, on the 7th of November 2020, when Joe Biden was announced US president, I felt sickened in my stomach and unbearably blue (pun unintended). I felt like America would be headed for more liberal, whitewashed policies, more chaos, more oppression, more inequality, more lies and deception and just felt like weeping for America. I felt I had let someone down - maybe I didn't pray enough, I should have fasted, and the news media seemed intent on not reporting Trump's version of the story aside from brief mention of his claims and always with the words ‘unsubstantiated’ or ‘without evidence’. I do see evidence hinting at election tampering in other websites and I’m not sure why the news outlets don’t profile it. I wonder if certain key officials in the swing States and media outlets are all in collusion with the democrats...
And then I remembered this opening chapter of a book I was reading yesterday while I was taking a rare moment to sit down in a nice cafe environment (Dig Restaurant at Bishan Library) with both of my boys, our stroller laden with books, books, books! And both of them were digging (haha, another pun cos of the cafe we were in) into their books with gusto, my oldest a block of a tome from the Adult section called "Battles That Changed History", and the younger one this graphically explosive book called "Escape from Planet Alcatraz"by Michael Dahl (no prizes for guessing how we came to stumble upon this unknown series). And for me, after ordering 2 pastas and a beloved mocha for myself and an oreo milkshake for the boys, I sank into my seat and pulled out a brand new book which I found lying in my husband's car boot, given to him by friend so long ago that he couldn't even remember who gave it to him, called "Attack Lambs". It was just the kind of book I loved.
So as I was cracking open the initial pages (my favourite part of reading any beloved book!) and reading it, while sipping my mocha, I stumbled upon these words which seared into my brain:
"All successful spiritual endeavour comes forth from an attitude of worship. Why? Because as worship focuses us on the Lord, it brings clarity. This clarity causes us to see the affairs of this life for what they are. It releases us to see that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, with Him at the right hand of the Father. We can see that the blood of Jesus has set up free from the presence and power of the Enemy (Hebrews 9:12)"
This is a timely reminder to my soul, when I am feeling so down, so helpless, so fearful. We need to return to an attitude of worship and continue to pray, pray for America and the truth to be revealed and for all lies and deception to be exposed plain as day.
I have also been reading Joshua 3 to 6 last Fri, and one of the key takeaways I had from the passage, a fresh insight, was that somehow God uses very unconventional methods to gain victories, e.g. He asked the Israelites to circumcise all the males while they were camped outside Jerico, which would have rendered them in pain and vulnerable for days. But they did it anyway. And when they approached the walls of Jerico, what did God ask them to do? March around the walls for 6 days and not do anything except blow the trumpets. It is almost like they were asked to worship for 6 days and on the 7th day, worship 7 times as long, and then give a shout. And what do you know, without them even lifting a sword or a battering ram, the walls came crumbling down. From worship. And obedience. And setting apart (circumcision). So I feel the power of worship is often underestimated in our society today where it seems like just something we do in church, before we get to the sermon proper, and just singing a few songs. Not linked really to victorious living or Spirit-filled loves. Or even Spiritual warfare. But it is. It is a powerful way to connect to the power of the Living God. Like Attack Lambs said, it is an uplink and a downlink at the same time. It is a great way to recharge ourselves, to increase our spiritual ‘health’, to give us the energy and the boldness to continue being different, to even give us divine wisdom for living (how many times have I felt an insight downloaded about a problem when I was worshipping?).
I have accumulated a playlist of powerful and uplifting worship songs which I think I ought to download into my phone and play it when I’m feeling down.... Perhaps that is something I should do next.
