Advent 2018 – Day Five – You make me want to shout
As I reflected on today’s passage the song which came to me was Shout best known by Lulu but originally by the Isley Brothers.
You know you make me wanna shout
Look, my hand’s jumping
Look, my heart’s thumping
Throw my head back
Come on now
.This Psalm indeed gives us plenty of reasons to shout with joy and excitement.
On a recent trip to the holy land we visited the Western Wall. Whilst there a teenage girl arrived so excited to be at this place of prayer that she ran into the men’s section and was quickly redirected
to the women’s. undeterred she ran on to take her place at the wall to pray.
She was literally quivering with the excitement of coming to pray, her whole body expressing the overflowing joy of the experience. Do we come to worship with such excitement, shaking with joy because we are coming to pray to God?
It is not very “British” but what a different experience of worship we would have if we did so. In our music sometimes we are lifted to these heights and we “almost” dance with the joy of the creative skill of the words and music.
Let us try this Advent to grasp some of that excitement and express it in our worship together.
Bible Passage: – Psalm 100(NIV)
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Sing my heart to the Lord who is God
Come and worship Him today
Sing loud the songs which are joyful and glad
For He does follow my ways
Prayers and Reflection
Helpful Hymn
Hymn: Singing the Faith – “Down the mountain the river flows“
Contemplation saying.
“Sing my heart to the Lord who is God.”
Let us pray together.
Contemplative Prayer.
Think of the saying in order to understand context and meaning,
Feel the meaning of the saying with and in your heart,
Pray, using the saying, for yourself or others. With only a name and without explaining the reasons or pre-defining any answers.
Listen for God’s voice in the quiet of your prayers.
Pray using your own prayers or one of those which have been prepared below.
Twitt
er Prayer
Lord fill me with joy to overflowing, let praises cascade from both my lips and my very soul this Advent time. Amen.
Facebook Prayer
.Lord God, I dance as I worship you.
As I dance I draw close to you.
My dance speaks louder than words ever could.
My dance is a prayer which speaks of your love.
Amen.
Full Prayer
Lord help me with my inhibitions. All of those things which prevent me from releasi
ng all of my energy and enthusiasm into my worship of you.
Let me dance not worrying about what others may think but knowing that you find it joyful and pleasing.
Lord there are times to be quiet and reflective in your presence but there are also times when we should shout, with our hearts thumping and with our heads thrown back, in the sheer joy of you presence.
Help us to respond to those times, to find passion bubbling uncontrollably in our very beings as we worship you in the power of the Spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
