Rock your world

How powerful can prayer be?

Today’s first reading (Acts 4:23-31) gives us a great example.

As they prayed,
the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

The power of worship, of course, is not always measurable on the Richter scale, but good worship should always be earthshaking.

Good worship knocks us out of the rut of our mundane, materialistic existence.

Good worship pulls us away from the quagmire of the sensual and launches us toward the ecstasy of the spiritual.

Good worship empties us of ourselves and our obsessions and fills us with the Holy Spirit of God.

Good worship empowers us to go forth and “speak the word of God with boldness”, to bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with mighty deeds (cf v. 33), and to share with those in need (cf v.34).

As we begin another work week, perhaps even as the glow of Easter begins to fade, may we find new joy, wonder, and strength by the grace of the Holy Spirit through focusing not on ourselves and our “world” but on the treasures of prayer.

Come then, let us bow down and worship...