Equipping & Empowering Worship Leaders Worldwide

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It’s possible to surrender on a Sunday and stay clenched the rest of the week.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:6 (NIV)

What’s actually going on

It’s possible to surrender on a Sunday and stay clenched the rest of the week. Most worship leaders have learned how to look surrendered in front of a room. Hands open at the chorus. Eyes closed at the bridge. Knees bent when the song asks for it.

In private it’s a different scene. The phone is in the hand. The mind is on the next thing. The Lord rarely gets a full minute of attention that isn’t tied to a deliverable.

A worship leader said this to us last month. “If I’m honest, I’ve made surrender a stage move and prayer a task. I haven’t been quiet with the Lord since I can remember.”

The platform absorbs a lot of that. The secret place doesn’t. The secret place is where the real surrender lives, or doesn’t.

Most of us aren’t dishonest people. We’ve just learned to put a Sunday face on a private problem, and the Sunday face works well enough that nobody asks.

What’s true

Jesus told the disciples to pray in a closed room because the closed room is where the relationship gets real. The Father who sees in secret is the one who actually knows you. He’s not impressed by the public version. He doesn’t need it.

He’s also the one who refills you so the Sunday doesn’t have to. The Sunday is downstream of the secret place. When the secret place dries up, the Sunday eventually does too. That’s how worship-leader burnout usually starts.

Surrender in the secret place is not impressive. There’s no audience. There’s no music in the background. Sometimes there are no words. There is just you, available, and Him.

And the strange thing is, the worship leaders who give Him their unimpressive private minutes tend to be the ones whose Sundays end up carrying the most weight. Not because they tried harder on Sunday. Because they stopped trying so hard alone.

For your team

  • When you think about your time alone with the Lord this week, was it transactional or relational? It’s okay to answer honestly.
  • What is one practice you used to do in private with God that you’ve quietly stopped?
  • What would it cost you to give Him fifteen unhurried minutes tomorrow? What would it cost you not to?

Pray this

Father in the secret place, I want You more than I want to be impressive in front of a room. Teach me to be with You when no one is watching. Amen.

This Sunday

Before you walk into the building, pull the car over for two minutes. Put the phone face down. Tell God you are His before you are anyone’s worship leader. Then walk in.

Go deeper

In the network: Search “The Secret Place That Holds Up the Sunday” for the live training on private prayer rhythms for worship leaders. Free at thechurchcollective.mn.co.

This devotional is part of The Church Collective’s free 52-week worship team devotional series. Get the first 12 as a free PDF and a fresh devotional in your inbox every Monday morning.