🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship! 🙌

I've been breaking social norms for the last few weeks when people ask, "How are things going?" Instead of the anticipated "Fine," I've been exclaiming things like, "Shockingly good!"

If you've been reading the Call to Worship or my blog for a while, you might know our family has been running fast and hard after the things God has spoken to us - only to hit wall after wall. For years, we've armed ourselves with verses like Isaiah 40:31, yet I still grew weary from running and faint from walking.

In the last six months, the walls we've marched around have crumbled to the ground. I keep looking over my shoulder, wondering if it is ok for things to be ok. Can I really be this strong in the Lord after a decade of what felt like a spiritual beatdown?

I wonder how the Israelites felt in Joshua 6 when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. They weren't coming from 10 hard years. They were coming from hundreds of years of uprootedness and slavery, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness en route to a place God called a Promised Land but came with unfathomable trial and loss on the way. I wonder if they also took a double take and wondered, "Was that victory supposed to happen!?!"

God had always gone before them. He had always been their champion, and it was the sound of their worship that sent those walls crumbling down. He had more than a multi-generational plan for freedom for His people. It is an eternal one.

My journey pales in comparison to the Israelites, but my hope abounds. They took hesitant step by step, hoping to find God, to hear Him, and please Him. In all my walking, wearying, waiting, wailing, and wondering, I've never taken a breath without Him. Jesus closed the gap so that however small my faith, however unstable my steps, My Champion had not jus gone before me... He lives in me.

Today's call to worship is to listen to Dante Bowe's "Champion", turn it up, and sing loud. Wherever you are in your journey, if you have received Jesus as Lord of your life, there is a champion who lives, breathes and moves in you. The Holy Spirit is your greatest advocate, wall crumbler, counselor, and closest companion. Worship Him today with joy and gladness!