How Praise Lifts Spiritual Heaviness (Even at Work)
Paul and Silas sang in prison. Here’s how praise can shift the atmosphere over your workplace.
In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas were in the prison. They were praying and singing hymns to God: the exact thing that the disciples and Jesus did before they went to the Mount of Olives on the night before the crucifixion (Matt. 26:30 and Mark 14:26).
It’s the same word used in Hebrews 2:12: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.”
Praise offers one way to lift heaviness over a community.
If you are dealing with some form of spiritual heaviness, start to praise. Listen to it, sing it, but however you do it, get it in you!
Even if you simply put on earbuds and listen for a bit, or step into the bathroom briefly to read Psalm 146 (below), your workplace groans for more praise.
Let us bless God,
Amy Joy
P.S. Psalm 146 (NLT):
Praise the Lord!
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.
Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
The Lord will reign forever.
He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.
Praise the Lord!
Does God actually care about our work? Yes! Far more than most of us were ever taught! Get a short, free reflection on why work—the place we spend the most waking hours most weeks—matters to him.
This booklet comes from Workplace Prayer, where we cover businesses in prayer, by name. If you're already longing to be prayed for, you can begin a week of coverage, our treat, at prayercoverage.co.