We Give Ourselves to God in Worship and Prayer

This post is by Patty Lewis.

I’m tired today, and I am also very thankful for the life God has given my family.  We’ve experienced, as a family, some incredible grief, a few literal storms and some equally incredible abundant living.  That is just the last couple months. 

We have lost two dear family friends and grieved alongside their families who have lost a loved one that they treasured and will never be the same without.  It is challenging to mourn with others in a quiet and supportive way.  Sometimes we are actively helping, like picking up creamers on the way to the service to celebrate the life of the lost loved one, and other times we help just being there during the service, listening, praying, crying with others.  We pray for them; we ask God to comfort them.  During the services, we worshiped with others in song.  Amazing Grace.

While we were grieving these losses and mourning with others, we also narrowly escaped two devastating hurricanes.  It is unnerving to know the storms are coming near or right over top of us.  Then, once they pass, to find that while so many thousands of others’ lives were devastated by complete loss, sometimes of their own loved ones, we have not suffered the same.  Our hearts break as we watch the videos and hear the stories.  We wonder, how, oh Lord, did we get spared?  We prayed all the way through.  Please keep us safe.  God, please don’t let us lose power.  Protect our home.  We prayed fervently and often.  Though we wonder why some are spared and some are not, we worship Him.  Even when we didn’t know if we would be safe, we continued to worship Him. 

We had a trip planned to attend a show in Orlando called Modelpalooza where my husband and son would each enter 10 models/figures of various kinds they had put together and/or painted using various techniques.  It was a big deal for us.  We would be staying all weekend, but the most recent Hurricane, Milton, was passing right over us just before we were to leave.  This was the second storm recently that others were devastated by, and we were again spared.  The model show announced it would go on.  We packed and we left, even before we could clean up the yard from the storm.  We didn’t lose power; we didn’t have damage.  The weekend was filled with prayer and worship in the rhythm of our life.  We lived well, enjoying the show all weekend, eating together, having fun in Orlando, going to Disney and just plain having a great time!  The boys won medals and found great deals on models.  The blessings, from small to huge, were pouring out on us.

In times of grief, in the storms and during our family vacation centered around a model show, we gave ourselves to God in worship and prayer.  We did it in the rhythms of life, in daily living.  Just living out this life, accepting when He gives life and when He takes it away.  Living abundantly as He has told us to, knowing Jesus died so that we could live.   We are thankful for what He has given us, the trials, the perfect gifts from heaven, relationships with family and friends that mean so much to us and even the smallest details of nice hotels and fun times on vacation.  We give ourselves to God in worship and prayer, living our lives fully.

May The Lord bless you and keep you! 

Patty Lewis lives on the Space Coast of Florida with her Husband, Son and one cat. She is a homeschool Momma, loves having the goal of encouraging others by listening and speaking words of life. She enjoys reading, gardening, learning, exploring, Disney, coffee (iced lattes really sweet), anything with her family and laughing really loud.

Photo by John Fowler on Unsplash