Sing to the Lord!

For many years I sang in church choirs as an alto –in the lower female range. In one choir, I was seated with a soprano to my left, and a tenor and bass directly behind me on either side. Everyone was going in different vocal directions and I had the hardest time staying on my alto notes. Because the soprano was a strong singer, I was constantly being pulled in her direction. The choir director didn’t want to move me (he had us arranged aesthetically by height), but he did give me some advice. He told me to concentrate more on my note – and to lean just a little towards the alto to my right. He said that he could hear me singing the correct notes, but at the same time, he could tell that I was listening to all the other singers around me and losing confidence in myself. I will always remember what he told me, “You’re on the right notes, but you have to stay focused and not back off.”

I think about that often when the world is loud and I’m struggling to stay on the right way. Many different voices are saying many different things, and they are apt to draw me away from what I know is true. The culture wants me to embrace things that God’s Word has clearly forbidden. The scholar wants me to trade truth for worldly philosophies that have no regard for God. The unsaved world wants me to stop singing God’s praises altogether. My choir director’s advice rings loud and clear: stay focused. Concentrate on what you know is right and true; lean into godly wisdom and don’t back off. This world is becoming more evil and more vocal every day. If we are not intentionally listening to God, you and I will be pulled away from what is right and true. I love this word from Paul to his protégé Timothy, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of” (2 Timothy 3:14). Stay the course. Focus on the truth. Let God’s Word drown out the voices of the world. The way of righteousness has not changed just because the music around you has. Beloved, don’t let the world change your song.

Conversations with God

I always start in my prayer journal with a verse of Scripture, usually something from the Psalms. This morning I was drawn to Psalm 28:7: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped.  My heart leaps for Joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.” The Spirit pricked my heart and said,

“Do you trust in Me, Child?”

Yes, Lord, I trust in You.

“Then where is your Joy? Where is your song?”

They’ve been beaten down by angry people and responsibilities that shouldn’t be mine and not enough funds to get through the month and not enough time for myself. Yes, I do trust in You, but I’m just tired, Lord.

“That’s because you’re trusting in me with your head, and not your heart.”

Oh, Father, I long for Joy, I long for a song in my heart. How do I do this?

“Give thanks.”

For . . .? Do you have any idea how heartbreaking and draining this season has been? It’s gone on so long and there’s no end in sight. Honestly God, how can I be grateful for all this?

“Be Joyful always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess 5:16-18).

This? This is Your will for my life?

Then He reminded me of Corrie and Betsie ten Boom, the Dutch sisters who endured the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp for the crime of hiding Jews from the German Polizei.  The building in which they were crammed was infested with fleas, which cause Corrie to complain.  Betsie reminded her that they must “give thanks in everything,” which Corrie could not understand.  But because of the fleas, the guards refused to go into their building and they were free from sexual assaults and also free to hold daily prayer and Bible study sessions with their fellow prisoners.

Beloved, if you’re finding it hard to give thanks because of people or problems or struggles or heartache,  may I gently remind you – as I remind myself – to turn your gaze from your circumstances to the God who is able to make even fleas a blessing. He is up to good in your life – and mine. In all things.

Put that Burden Down

Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote a powerful and beautiful song called “He Touched Me” and the first lines go like this: “Shackled by a heavy burden, ‘neath a load of guilt and shame.”

I can relate to that. I carried guilt and shame for most of my life. It weighed a ton. I know many of you are nodding – you have carried the same load.  We know what we’ve done and we’re mortified.   What misery is ours when we just stop there – shacked and bound, burdened and ashamed. But listen to the next lines:

“Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same!”

Oh, the blessed release when we allow the hand of Jesus to reach out and take away our burdens and shame and break the shackles from our feet.

Jesus came into this sinful world to set us free – as He read from Isaiah – “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to preach the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”( Luke 4:18-19). He told Nicodemus, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17). Jesus came, not to point to you with all your bags and say “I AM ASHAMED OF YOU!” He came to say, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Rest from the weight. Rest from the shame. Rest from the guilt.

Maybe this morning you come to God, with your head and eyes downcast, ashamed and guilty, expecting chastisement and rejection. Beloved, Jesus is reaching out His nail-scarred hand to take your bags of misery and shame. There is love in His eyes, not condemnation. He bids you rise and face the day, forgiven, freed, and radiant in Him.

“He touched me, Oh He touched me,

and oh the joy that floods my soul!

Something happened and now I know,

He touched me and made me whole.”