Category: Devotions

The Power of Our Song

 

"I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving."  Psalm 69:30

 

God loves to hear us sing to Him.  Have you ever been in church and saw the effects of singing praises to God?  If you haven't I pray that God allows you to see it.  His Spirit flows and moves the masses; yokes are broken and handed over to Jesus.  Bonds and chains are destroyed and we are free to give God all the glory that is due to Him.  But its not just for entertainment as most use it for.  God gives us many things when we sing out to Him.  He comforts us, gives us victory, peace, joy, and freedom.

 

"Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody."  Isaiah 51:3  One of the things I did to get through this year was sing and cry out to God for His comfort.  Only in singing and crying was I able to get the comfort I needed from all the pain I had experienced.  God promises to comfort us because we are His children! 

 

"Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly, there was an earthquake so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken. All the doors immediately flew open, and everyone's chains were unfastened."  Acts 16:25-26  In this story, Paul and Silas were wrongly imprisoned…but God!  But God freed them and save thousands.  He saved the soul of their jailer by them not leaving when they were freed.  "At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the LORD caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves."  2 Chronicles 20:22  This is just one of the stories where praising the Lord with song led to victory over enemy armies.

 

"And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away."  Isaiah 35:10  Peace is the gift God freely gives to us, and His joy is our strength. (John 14:27, Nehemiah 8:10)  When we sing, we realize both of these gifts.

 

"God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land."  Psalm 68:6  God frees us!  When Jesus died on the cross for our sins we WERE freed.  Not waiting on some other act or miracle, but it has already happened.  We are freed (even if you may be physically bound by something) from the weight of our sins.  We are free from condemnation, we are free from death as long as we are in Christ.

 

Just think about it though, we have the God-given power to speak and decree over situations…by singing praise to God, it moves Him on our behalf.  Why equip us with such a powerful tool if we cannot use it to glorify Him?  Don't stop singing!  Watch Him move heaven and earth for you.

 

"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."  Colossians 3:16

Transparency

 

O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.  Jeremiah 20:12

 

Growing up, when I was in my elementary through high school grades, my teachers used transparencies for our notes and sometimes quizzes.  They would prepare the notes for the class and put them up on the screen for all to see.  This was before school got all high-tech with the smart boards, which I did not see until college. 

 

Much like those transparencies, with the notes on them that could be wiped off with water, but dried on over time is our mind and heart.  The notes we have taken from the past on how to deal with people often cloud our judgment, and can prevent us from receiving a blessing or blessing someone else.  Our pain has become smudged with bitterness and we refuse to wipe it away.  Thank God for His healing waters, His Word, and His love that can erase anything!  Just like God casts our sins away forever, we can cast away unforgiveness, painful memories, guilt or shame.  We can make the choice to walk with God so that He can teach us to forgive…so that like in the verse above He can impact vengeance.  Once we give things over to Him, we are no longer stained by our hatred, we are washed and renewed–transparent in His love.  Whenever it was my turn to write a problem, I always hoped to get the new transparencies that were untarnished and clear…not weathered with age by time.  Don't let your hurt and pain leave you tarnished or worse yet, permanently scarred.  God sees through us into every nook and cranny, let His love heal you and then shine through to others.

 

"So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord–who is the Spirit–makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image."  2 Corinthians 3:18