four reasons YOU should worship in an empty room

I have been really privileged to be a part of the Prayer Movement for years. At its heart, it is all about making Jesus' greatest commandment to us the first priority in our lives. In other words, "It's all about love," as Misty Edwards loves to sing. We really believe that our worship and prayers actually touch the heart of God.

The primary expression of this movement is in establishing places set aside for pouring out our loving adoration to King Jesus. Most of them are called prayer rooms. So instead of trying to get thousands of people to show up in one place at one time for a performance, we value a "lifestyle Christianity" that has our communities regularly gathering throughout the week in groups to love on Jesus.

Through the years, I have spent a lot of time in prayer rooms, which also means that I have spent a lot of time leading worship in an empty room. In doing this, I've learned two things: (1) EVERYONE is called to lead worship (instruments and singing on key not required), (2) we should all regularly lead worship in empty rooms.

Here's four reasons why:

1. The Room's Not Empty Worship is an action–specifically a reaction. Worship is our response to the beauty and love of God. A performance is any kind of demonstration meant to engage an audience. You need at least one person in the room for a performance, but people are not required for worship. As long as God's there (and he's always there), I can worship him to the max whether I'm in a filled stadium or an empty prayer room.

2. Actually, The Room's Full Not only is God always with me when I worship, but the Psalmists and Apostles tell me that in some mysterious way that I don't understand, angels and other heavenly beings are invisibly present with me, being led by me in worship (Ps. 103:20-23, 148:1-2; Eph. 3:10; Rev. 7:9-12). I know that sounds wild, but the Father has invited us to be heaven's worship leaders, alongside of Jesus (Heb. 2:11-12). When we worship, we reveal things that heavenly beings "long to look" at (1 Pet. 1:12). The physical room I'm leading worship in may be empty, but in the spirit, where I am seated with Jesus (Eph. 2:6), the room is actually full.

3. I Want to Be About One Thing Worshiping in an empty room causes me to wrestle with unbelief and boredom, while freeing me from a performance mentality. It's a testing ground to see if my heart simply wants to connect with God.

4. I Want to Pour My Heart Out One of the things I love about worshiping in an empty room is that I can sing and pray anything that I want, without filtering myself because of the other people present. I can pour out whatever's in my heart and sort it out with God. I deeply cherish the sweet moments of total abandonment that come from the secret place of prayer and worship.