Summer Blog Mixtape – Let Your Kingdom Come

Today’s post in the summer blog mixtape series is from Ryan Egan. I’ve been in touch with Ryan over twitter for a while and love his perspective. You can follow his tweets at @iamanoffering and read his blog at www.iamanoffering.com
——-

Leading worship can be a fine-line balancing act between passionately declaring who God is and putting on a show. While there is a certain element of “performance” to leading worship that must be present (confidence, preparation, memorization, presence) there is the possibility of slipping into the thrill of performing rather than the pursuit of spreading God’s fame.

I’ve struggled with this lately, both in my own life and in watching the worship leader culture. While I will never be one to say that the “performance” aspect should be completely eliminated, there is a certain danger in it that can lead to massive amounts of pride that creep in without any warning.

God has used a song in my life in a powerful way to address this issue. Sovereign Grace’s “Let Your Kingdom Come” has been a tough but necessary call to take a hard look at my motives as I lead worship. As I look at the first verse I have to ask myself some tough questions:

Your glorious cause, oh God, engages our hearts
Let Jesus Christ be known, wherever we are
We ask not for ourselves but for Your renown
The Cross has saved us so we pray, Your kingdom come
Am I truly engaged in the glorious cause of God, or the pursuit of a platform?
Is my desire to “let Jesus Christ be known” or my talents?
Is the renown of God first and foremost in my mind? Or my own renown?

As I look at these questions I’m incredibly convicted. In a world where it’s increasingly easy to “have a voice” it’s also easy to say you’re going to use that platform for God’s glory but deep down be rooted in pride and the pursuit of man’s approval. I’m still struggling with this. Is it possible to use your platform for God’s glory and for His renown? Absolutely! But only with fervent prayer, accountability, and the constant attitude of taking every thought captive to Christ.

But after conviction, with repentance, always comes grace:

“Give us Your strength, oh God, and courage to speak
Perform Your wondrous deeds, through those who are weak
Lord use us as You want, whatever the test
By grace, we’ll preach Your Gospel ’til our dying breath.”

After confessing and declaring the words of the first verse and grasping their implications we have the opportunity to sing a prayer from our humbled state. I’m so thankful that I am one of “those who are weak” that God can perform His wondrous deeds through. Weakness is a strength. It is important to remind ourselves that without the power of God in our lives, we are nothing.

As we enter into an increasingly connected world where it’s relatively easy to gain influence, pray these words and pray them often:

“Let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done, so that everyone might know Your name
Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth, ’til Your sovereign work on earth is done.
Let Your Kingdom come.”

——-
Ryan has a great bio section posted on his blog here – www.iamanoffering.com/blog/about/