Jesus plays the guitar

Last night was Prayer and Praise night. The schedule for Wednesdays goes like this -

5:45 to 7:45 Date night with Jesus (extended, intimate time with the Lord)

8:00 to 9:30 Prayer and Praise night

I can't tell you how cool this schedule is. After everyone spends a wonderful two hours with Jesus, we get to all come together, praying and praising him corporately. It rocks.

But here is my story. I am semi-in-charge of Prayer and Praise night. I lead worship and head up a lot of what goes on. My band is made up me singing, my friends John on guitar, Steve on piano (but not this week), Josh on djembe, and Sarah on chick vocals. We had roughly two days to throw together four songs, get slides going, make copies of the chord sheets, and... well... practice.

Unfortunately, we didn't click right away musically. A couple things made it really hard, and the moral of the story is, my perfectionist self got really stressed really fast. So, three hours before, I realized that I had to play guitar with John later that night. Thing is, I've been playing for two months. And I had to sing.

...

stressed.

So, we pick up the story a half hour into my date night with Jesus - the one thing I had been looking forward to in the day. Time to spend quiet before God. And it was being taken by chores for this night.

So at 6:20 I made for the boardwalk. I opened my Bible while walking and prayed for a good page. I opened to 2 Corinthians, and made it about ten feet before I heard, "Hey, whatcha readin'?"

"My Bible."

"No, what book?"

Gerald and I proceeded to talk for for next hour. He told me a couple of key things.

First off, I needed to drop the perfectionism - God is the only one who is perfect.

That's one of those things you know, but you have to be reminded of constantly. My spirit of pride wanted so much to play perfectly, I forgot that what I needed was a spirit of praise. That was my job in leading: to lead my brothers and sisters to the throne room of God. That is an attitude issue, not a musical one.

Also, he taught me how to pray.

He taught me to pray in faith. Because of his sacrifice, we have a strong and perfect plea before Him. Because He has justified us, we stand before him confident. He rebuked my stress and worry in the name of Christ, and I felt it leave. It simply left my heart, and I was ready to praise my God.

So, last night, I played guitar and sang and led my friends to the throne of God effectively. But the difference was, I did it for Him and not me. And I did it because of Him, not me. There is nothing more important than focusing on Him, and that is what it takes. He will do all things to the glory of His name, all we have to do is ask in faith.

Turns out, Jesus knows how to play guitar.

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16