Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] Hello, and welcome to the Second Row Conversations podcast. I'm Letitia, also known as Lady P, and I thank you for joining me today on the Second Row. Thank you again to everyone who's been reaching out, who's been logging on, who's been sending messages, especially about this month's topic since May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I appreciate you reaching out. I didn't realize how much it affected people and how this topic would resonate with so many of the viewers. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. I hope you know that. I tell you all the time. So thank you so much.
[00:00:46] We're going to continue on with talking about mental health.
[00:00:50] And like I said, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And so we're going to continue on the topic I have on my worship is my therapy shirt.
[00:00:59] Last year, last May, Jeremy preached on Job.
[00:01:05] And in his message, he talked about worship being his therapy. And. And it was so good. And it made us think and made us do some more research. So today we're going to talk about Worship is my therapy. We're going to talk about a little bit about Job, what worshiping, doing what worshiping looks like while you are in tough season, and how that can indeed be your therapy. Okay, make sure you have your notepad, make sure you have a pen, get some teas, get some coffee, something to make. Get comfortable and make some notes. Okay, so we are going today, we're going to explore a powerful truth. That's what I put a powerful truth found in one of the most painful chapters of Scripture. And that is a story of Job. And we're going to center on Job, the first chapter in the 20th verse. That's what's on my shirt, is my therapy. Job one and 20.
[00:02:03] Okay, so after losing everything, Job falls to the ground in worship. What does that mean for us today when we are grieving, anxious or emotional, emotionally drained, what does that look like for us? And we're going to dive into the healing power of worship. Okay, so job one and 20. The NIV version says at this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship.
[00:02:36] The story of Job is a very familiar story. It is one where Job was a very wealthy man. He was one living for Christ, living for, for God, doing what he needed to do. He had a family, a wife, he had cattle. He had lives. Like he was the guy, he was the man. He had it all according to what society says, what that means, having it all. And in one day, he Lost everything. He lost his children, he lost his wealth.
[00:03:12] And really, he lost his stability. Everything that he had was gone. And if you read the story, if you've heard the story, it was like one after another, one servant comes to tell them your children have died. One servant has come to tell them your lifestock has died once. Like it was one thing after another.
[00:03:31] If you heard a statement, if it ain't one thing, it's something else. That's how it was with Joel. Before he could process the loss, one loss, someone was coming to tell him about another loss.
[00:03:42] So job one and 20 shows his raw emotional response. He tore his robe, he shaved his head.
[00:03:50] But he followed by worshiping.
[00:03:56] Worship doesn't ignore pain. It brings it into the presence of God.
[00:04:01] So we're going to talk about that. Okay? Worship doesn't ignore pain. It doesn't mean that the pain isn't there. It doesn't mean that that all that's happening isn't happening. It didn't mean that Job didn't lose his children or lost his home and his cattle.
[00:04:17] But it does mean that you are going into the presence of God. That's where your therapy is coming in. Okay, worship as a healing practice. We're going to talk about that a little bit. Worship is more than music music. It's an act of surrender and trust. We like to say praise and worship, right? Praise and worship music or the praise and worship team. Worship. When you say worship, people usually do think of a type of music, but it is one of surrender and trust. In moments of heartbreak, worship can anchor us in the truth. When life is laughing, when things are going on and it is chaotic, it can kind of worship gives you an opportunity to just be still and go before the presence of God. If you've ever gone fishing or ever gone on a boat, the boat is moving and you're trying to get it to stay in one place, you throw the anchor overboard and it goes down to the bottom and it sits. Goes to the bottom of the ocean or the lake or the stream or wherever and it sits. And then the boat stays still. It doesn't move. And that's what worship does for us. It anchors us. It keeps us still so that we're not moving and flowing with whatever is going on around us. You see me moving and flowing. It doesn't move and flow with everything that's going around us. It holds you still.
[00:05:41] And even though the wind may be blowing, the life may be going on. The children are acting crazy, the spouse, your significant other's Acting crazy. I say angries or things are just going away that anchors you.
[00:05:55] Worship reminds us of who God is. Even when life doesn't make sense. We all have been there when life just wasn't making sense to us. But worship reminds us who we, who God is, not who we are, not what's going on. But it reminds us of who God is. We are anchored, staying, staying still and talking to God and having that intimate time with him.
[00:06:24] Worship isn't denial, it's declaration. We are declaring that God, you are God and this belongs to you. And I need you in the midst of this situation.
[00:06:37] One quote that I found that I thought was really good, but I can't control my situation.
[00:06:42] I can still, I can still choose my posture, which is a posture of worship, okay? When I can't control my situation, I can't control how I respond to that situation. I like to tell people and I have to remind myself, control what you can control and that which you can't, give it to God. That's all you can do. And that's what worship does. I can't control it. These things are out of my control. So, God, I am worshiping you. I am declaring that this is, this belongs to you, that you are in control. And I am going to choose my posture of worship.
[00:07:15] Scripture cross reference is Psalm 34:18. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. So even though we are may have a broken heart, God, the Lord is with us. He's close to us. Okay, what do we do when worship feels hard? Because worship can be hard.
[00:07:41] It's hard to know. It's hard to have sometimes that posture of worship because we want to try to fix it. We want to try to figure it out. We want to question God, why am I going through this? But what do we do when worship seems hard? First you have to acknowledge it. Sometimes worship feels impossible in grief or stress. If you've ever gone through grief, if you've ever lost someone near and dear to you, I promise you, worship sometimes is the last thing you that's on your mind, right?
[00:08:15] You're dealing with loss. You don't know how to deal with it. It's overwhelming or going through a stressful time. You don't know what to do with it. You don't know how to handle it. Sometimes the best thing to do is sit in it.
[00:08:27] Sit in that grief, sit in that stress. Acknowledge that you are grieving, Acknowledge that you are stressed. Acknowledge that you're anxious.
[00:08:35] Don't ignore it, you have to acknowledge. Acknowledge it. Okay?
[00:08:40] God isn't looking for perfect or perfection. He honors honest hearts. Go to him and talk to him. God, this is hard. God, I'm grieving. God, I am upset.
[00:08:53] He already knows, but he wants you to come to him. Be honest. Don't lie to Him. He already knows. But if you be honest and you acknowledge, acknowledge what's going on with you, then we can deal with it. He can help you deal with it. So be authentic. Be real with him. He wants honesty. Okay, and what are some practical ways to worship while you're in pain? Let's talk about that. Pray the psalms aloud.
[00:09:22] Pray them aloud. There are so many psalms that are in the Bible that in the book of Psalms there's so many that you can read to cry out and say, lord, I need your help, Lord. But you know what? I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
[00:09:37] Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Even do. Even though I am going through, I'm still going to pray them out loud. I'm not going to just hold it in my heart. Because sometimes you do want to just silently sit there. But sometimes you need to hear it when you say it. You need.
[00:09:57] It sits a little bit better when you say it out loud.
[00:10:01] Sing even if your voice shakes. God knows I am.
[00:10:05] I consider myself a worshiper and I love to sing. And there are times where I am going through. And even in my worship, even in my singing, it's hard because I am in tears. But you sing even if your voice shakes, even if it doesn't sound good. The Bible says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It don't have to always sound good. Okay? But talk to him. Sing to him.
[00:10:33] Journal.
[00:10:34] Get a journal. There are so many out there, so many nice ones, really pretty ones or one that you can just get and just write in it and talk about how good God is. I promise you, if you focus on his goodness, you focus on his how good he is to you and how he has kept you in the past.
[00:10:55] You write that out.
[00:10:56] It will help you through what you're going through. You'll be so focused on his goodness that you're not focused on where you are at that moment. Acknowledge it. But then go ahead and acknowledge how good God is, how he good he has been and what he is doing. Even in the midst of this grief or the stress, anxiety, in the midst of the chaos that's going on in your life, acknowledge it, journal it. And watch how you. Your focus shifts, okay?
[00:11:23] And talk to him. Tell him, lord, I trust you, God, I trust you through this.
[00:11:28] I may not be able to trace your hand, but I trust your heart. I know you know what's best for me.
[00:11:36] I know you understand that this mountain is in front of me and that you can move this mountain.
[00:11:42] The Bible says he gives us the ability to speak to the mountain and it shall move.
[00:11:47] And I. This past Sunday at Sunday school, one thing that we talked about and I, I made acknowledge of it, I read it somewhere was that we, we asked God to move the mountain. But that, that means that there is a mountain. There has to be a mountain in front of us. There has to be a struggle. There has to be something in front of us. So we don't. Life is not gonna always be peaches and creams. There are going to be mountains in front of us. So in order for him to, to tell us to move the mountain, there has to be a mountain there, okay? So we have to remember that. But in all, through all of this, remind yourself and remind God, Lord, I trust you. I can't. I may not understand it, but I trust you.
[00:12:30] So worship as therapy.
[00:12:33] The world offers therapy through talking, which is important. And as a therapist, I am all for therapy. We talked about it last week as Mental Health awareness month is going on. I am all for therapists. I said the first episode of this month. You can have Jesus, you can love Jesus and still have a therapist. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. If you need it, go find a therapist.
[00:12:58] But worship is soul therapy. It reorients our spirit. So we can talk, talk it out, talk to the therapist, talk to a pastor who's doing pastoral counseling. Talk to someone. But worship also is good for our spirit.
[00:13:14] Okay? It is it. It helps our spirit. It is soul therapy, right?
[00:13:20] It's not about escaping reality. It's about entering into God's presence. So it's not about.
[00:13:28] Not.
[00:13:29] It's not about ignoring what's going on around you, but it's about taking the focus off of what is going on around you and putting the focus back on God and how good he is, who he is. Okay?
[00:13:43] Worship breaks change. That worry cannot. Oh, that's so good. That's so good. Worship breaks chains. That worry cannot.
[00:13:54] A scripture reference for this point is Isaiah 61 and 3.
[00:14:00] Will put on a garment of praise. Instead of a spirit of despair, put on a garment of praise, like putting on a coat, putting on a jacket, wrapping up in it. We will put that On a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
[00:14:20] So whatever you're facing, loss, anxiety, burnout, remember this worship is not just for Sunday mornings. It's not. It's for any night. It's for Tuesday night, it's for Thursday night. It's for tearful nights. It's for stressful nights. It's for anxious nights. It's for any time. It's not just for a Sunday morning going to church. We're having praise and worship time. It is for any time. It's for riding in the car and you're having a conversation with God. Find you some worship music.
[00:14:51] Or you sing. You can sing your own. Fine. A song that's in your heart and you can sing that. Worship is for any time that it falls upon you or anytime that you need it. Find a time to worship like Job. You can worship through your wounds. You can worship through your loss. You can worship through your stress. You can worship through your anxiety.
[00:15:18] Because when you lift your heart to God, even broken heart, he brings peace.
[00:15:25] It's not about a performance. It's not about what other people see when you worship. It's about intimate time between you and God. That's what worship looks like. That's what it means. And so as worship is your therapy, as you are having those rough times, because even those who have a therapist, you may not always get to be able to reach out to your therapist, right? It may be midnight. It may be you're writing in your car and you're just thinking about all that's going on.
[00:15:56] Worship is the time where you can go ahead and have that soul therapy between times, between times of seeing your therapist or just understanding that at this moment in my life, I need to get into the presence of God.
[00:16:10] Okay? So just like Job, just like many others in the Bibles who have gone through, like David and many others who have gone through a time of hard times, they realized, worship is what I need. Worship is where I need to be. And worship takes me into the presence of God. He in the habits, he inhabits, the praises of his people. That means he comes in when we are in a time of praise and we're in a time of worship. That's inviting God into your life, into your situation. And as I said numerous times previously, it is a time of worship. It takes your mind off what's. What you're going through and it puts it back on the goodness of God.
[00:16:54] So that's it, guys. Worship is my therapy. Worship is my therapy. It is a time to remember that even when life is hard, even when life is good sometimes, but definitely when life is hard, it is a time for you to get into the presence of God. To remind yourself that no matter what's going on, no matter what I'm facing, no matter what it looks like, this is the time for me to fall on my face and go before God and give it to Him. Okay? I thank you for joining me today. It was a quick little session, a quick little episode, but I thank you for joining me today.
[00:17:31] As I say all the time, follow me on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. I appreciate you going on this journey with me. It is still a journey. I am still yet learning. Guys, it has almost been a year. Isn't that crazy? It's almost been a year since we've been starting this journey. But I appreciate each and every one of you.
[00:17:52] We got one more meet, one more week in the month of May as we continue on talking about mental health awareness. If you are someone you know is struggling mentally, I invite you to I ask you to reach out. There are so many resources available that's out there. You can google it, you can chat GPT, you can go and see what resources are available to get you help if you are struggling. If you need to talk to someone, please don't sit in it by yourself. Reach out and get some help. Okay? Thank you again. Follow me on YouTube. Make sure you like, follow and share, subscribe. I appreciate it. I thank you. I love you. I really do. I appreciate you and as I say all the time, no matter where you are, no matter what you're dealing with, remember to accept it, embrace it and flourish in it. I thank you and I see you next time.
