Last night, I was attending the girl’s evening prayer. One already completed, the girls had begun their second worship song. The majority were clapping to the beat and singing along, with a few being children, and by that, I mean causing small mischief…whispering, roughhousing and daydreaming. The older girls wander through the rows to keep them in order.
Then, a beautiful thing happened. The power cut (something we have become accustomed to 8-10 hours a day here). In a matter of seconds, the girls lifted their voices higher and louder, shouting their song of praise to the heavens. Though I could not see more than a few inches in front of my face, I could only imagine girls side by side, many joining hands and lifting their eyes. With some 100-200 girls under the age of 12 in the room, there is no doubt that many share a fear of the dark. Complete darkness grabbed their attention. Any discussions dropped, playing ceased and one could think of nothing but the pure black surrounding us. All distractions were gone. With the flip of a switch, all attention in the room fell on Christ. Keeping in mind, this is where our focus should have been during prayer and worship anyway. Would it be farfetched to think God was not feeling the love in the room and found a way to take back all focus of our hearts and minds?
The sound that filled the room was enough to send chills down my spine. I could now feel the praise pour out of the hearts of these girls instead of just singing by routine. This is the heart of worship. God wants our undivided attention, our praise in the purest form, seeking Christ and giving all glory to Him. This is not the first time I have witnessed a pitch-black prayer. Every time the lights go off, the focus centers on Him and it is a lovely thing. Nevertheless, yesterday was the first time I saw how this is the perfect illustration of what God does in our lives when our focus is off course.
When troubles come, when fear enters our lives, when we are hurting, to whom do we turn? God, of course! He is quick to remind us that we are nothing without Him. God sends the darkness and He is the only light, the only hope we have. When we are dealing with troubles, we are no longer distracted by our own selfishness and the worldly ways in which we try to live. Christ becomes our center again and we lean on Him, seeking Him wholeheartedly.
….The lights came back on and prayer continued. Something even more magnificent struck me then, something I had failed to notice before. During the last song of prayer, all children close their eyes. Tonight as I listened, all voices were again lifted high, just as they had been when the lights went out. No one was paying attention to those around them. I scanned the room to see all faces looking intent and pouring out their praise to God. Isn’t this worship better?
What if God doesn’t have to take back our attention. What if He doesn’t have to shut off the lights in our lives because we have willing closed our eyes. We make a conscious decision to put everything else in our lives aside and make Christ front and center. We seek Him even on our best days. Doesn’t he deserve all the glory and praise anyway? What would we have without Him? God’s purpose is not to serve us, assist us, carry us out of pain and struggles. Our purpose is to love Jesus, share Jesus and become more like Jesus. (WFC has the right idea!)
Let us not wait for the darkness to come. Let us close our eyes, bring the focus back to God and give our hearts to Him, even when we are not hoping for an answered prayer. I cannot let my world distract me from giving God my attention, praise, love and life to the fullest.
Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
