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He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3 (NLT)
Ever heard a song that spoke to you in such a way that the words stuck in your mind all day long? The type of song that seemed, in some way, at that moment in time to make a statement about who you were or what you were going through? People who are in love will often hear a song that speaks of their relationship and make that ‘their song’. They may have it sung at their wedding ceremony and for the rest of their lives, whenever they hear it; they will be reminded of that day when they officially began their lives together. Some may even be lucky enough to have a song written just for them by the one they love, a testament to undying, eternal love.
So, what’s your song? It’s not important if the tune is best fit for rock ‘n roll, rap, or classical. It doesn’t matter what instruments you play it with. What is your song?
There’s an old chorus, part of which goes something like this: “There’s a new song in my heart since the savior set me free There’s a new song in my heart ’tis a heav’nly harmony all my sins are washed away in the blood of Calvary o what peace and joy nothing can destroy there’s a new song in my heart.”
During some of the darkest times of my life I’ve found it interesting that the songs that come to mind are the songs of my faith. Faith in a God who is so Holy that he can not bear to look on sin and failure. A God that is so powerful the winds and nature obey his voice. A God so loving that he chose to give me grace and mercy at the Cross of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Songs can give a message of love or hate, of life or death, of hope or hopelessness. My song wasn’t written by me. It was written on my heart by Jesus. My song isn’t dependent on my actions or the actions of others. Its message of hope and love and grace and mercy rings on through the darkest times of our soul, when the wounds seem too much to bear.
He has given me a new song! A song that will never, ever end. A song that will make others take notice and praise God. Not because of me, but because of Jesus.
I’ll ask the question again. What’s your song? If you have Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you have been forgiven of all those wounds and bad choices of the past. Then your song of hope and praise must be sung. It can not be squelched. So sing! Sing your song in the words you speak, in the actions you take, in the love you show to those who deserve it least.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, Thank you for the song you gave me when you died for my sin. Forgive me for the times I’ve squelched its message. Empower me to sing for you with every thought, word and action. In your name I praise! Amen.
Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you. Proverbs 20:22
The toughest prisons are the prisons with no visible walls. Prisons of our souls that rob us of our freedom to love, our freedom to trust, our ability to live free of fear. In a ‘real prison’ the walls are built thick and strong by someone else for the express purpose of keeping you inside and protecting others from you.
The prison of the soul is built with your own hands. Brick by brick. Hurt by hurt. Failure by failure. Misunderstanding by misunderstanding. In your own mind, whether it’s a conscious thought or not, the prison walls of the soul are built to keep others out and to protect you from any more hurt. You’ve contracted with the master builder of walls, vengeance to make sure no one ever hurts you again.
One of the key ingredients to wall building is the desire to get even. We want to make sure that the perpetrators of our wound ‘pay for what they did’. We want to see justice served and are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that happens.
The problem is, when we try to settle the score with someone else we usually just imprison ourselves in bitterness, anger and fear. ‘If I don’t trust, you won’t fail me; If I don’t love you, you won’t hurt me again; If I don’t forgive you, you will never forget what you did to me.’
Your heavenly Father has a better way. His is the way of freedom; of hope; of love. His way offers you the healing you need from the emotional, spiritual and physical scars that weigh you down every day. His is the way of love, forgiveness and trust. Not trust in others, trust in His ability to take care of the situation in his time and in his own way.
When you forgive someone you aren’t saying what they did is okay, you are saying you trust God enough to let him take care of the situation. Think about that for a moment. Who better to deal with the enemies of your soul than the creator God of the universe? Trusting God to handle each situation in your life not only frees you from the prison of your soul, it protects you from the enemy that seeks to destroy you.
Who better to defeat your enemy than the creator God of the universe who loves you so much he was willing to give his very own son so that you could live free. It’s time to tear down the prison walls of your soul. It’s time to live in the freedom of forgiveness and trust. Not trust in mankind, but trust in an almighty God who wants desperately to free you from your hurt.
PRAYER: Father God, I’m angry today. I’m looking out at a world of hurt and fear from walls I’ve built to protect me. I sought freedom and gained incarceration. I thought pain-free living, but live in anguish and worry. I can’t tear these walls down on my own. I need your help. Empower me with your Spirit to be able to hand all this ugly stuff over to you. Help me to forgive for my sake and trust you to take care of the rest. In Jesus name, Amen.
Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.” John 3:36 (NCV)
“Ah, this is living.”
What would it take for you to say this? No bills? Lounging on the beach in Hawaii with no schedule, no responsibility and no sign of it coming to an end? Perhaps having a perfect spouse, three children in Medical School and a clean bill of health for you?
When we think of living, our first thoughts often turn to personal comfort and a bright prospectus for tomorrow. We all know people or have heard of people who have worked their entire lives preparing for retirement only to have something devastating happen to them just before or after they retire.
During the great depression hundreds of people jumped from buildings and bridges when the realized they’d ‘lost everything’. The real tragedy was in the lives of the women whose husbands didn’t come home or the children whose Daddies would never tuck them in again. Little boys were without their favorite person to play catch or shoot hoops. Little girls would never have ‘daddy’ to walk them down the aisle.
Jesus says (my paraphrase), “If you put your relationship with me in first place you will not only have the strength to make it through the battles of life here on earth, you will find that true living comes after you die! If on the other hand you put the things of earth (money, toys & pleasure) in first place, you will never experience life as I intended for you.”
Pursue the important things of life. The most important things in your life won’t show up in your checkbook, your garage or your family room. The will be etched on the very tablet of your heart. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve failed. It’s not important what you think you’ve lost here on earth. The important things like your faith in Christ and the power of his Spirit in your life are things no one can take from you.
Keeping your focus on what Christ has done for you makes all the other things less important. With Him as your guide, no matter what you are going through, you will be able to say that because of Jesus love, grace and forgiveness, “This is living!”
PRAYER: Jesus I confess to you that too much of my life is spent trying to make things work here on earth. I’ve neglected the important things like family, and most importantly my relationship with you. Empower me with your Spirit to build on the important things. I know in my heart that true living comes after I die. In your name, Amen.
You don’t gain anything by being punished for some wrong you have done. But God will bless you, if you have to suffer for doing something good. 1 Peter 2:20 (CEV)
Usually when I’ve read this verse I’ve focused on the words ‘punished’ and ‘doing good’ with the idea of persecution for following Jesus, or for being honest when dishonesty would be the ‘norm’ or completely understandable.
Punishment for doing good isn’t always the physically abusive kind of punishment though and it’s not always administered by those intent on hurting us. Sometimes the suffering we endure comes at the hands of unknowing and, if we were honest, unintentional attacks. These are the attacks that don’t leave bruises or scars on the outside, but wreak havoc on the inside.
Random acts of kindness are often lauded as being some super-heroic gesture that brings us lots of joy and fulfillment. But when our acts of kindness and consideration are unnoticed it hurts. The legalist will tell you to suck it up. To look for recognition is nothing more than sinful pride. But I don’t buy that completely. While it’s true that the ‘Christ-like’ things we do should be done regardless of whether they are recognized or not, that doesn’t mean that that it’s some great heinous sin to expect that we get thanked for what we do.
One day Jesus was walking along a path and came upon ten lepers. He told them to go to the priests and show themselves to the priests. As they went they were cleansed of their leprosy! Only one of the ten returned to say thank you and that person was a much hated Samaritan. Jesus response was a very human one. He looked for the other nine!
“Wait a minute…Didn’t I heal ten men? And even though I delivered them from this deadly, stinking, socially repulsive sin, the only one who thought to say thank you was this foreigner? Where are my friends? Where are the ones who should have been first in line, my countrymen?”
It’s been over 2,000 years since that story and nothing has really changed in our human nature. Those who are closest to us are usually the ones that notice our kind actions the least. It’s often strangers that say thank you more often than our spouses, children or closest friends and that hurts!
Two lessons come to mind when I re-read this story. First of all, I want to make sure that I am appreciative of all the things, large and small that people do for me. My prayer is that no act of kindness will go unappreciated.
Secondly, from all appearances, the other nine were healed. Even though they weren’t thankful, Jesus knew that his true reward would come from his Father. The same is true for me. The kind things we do may go unnoticed on earth, but they are never forgotten in heaven.
PRAYER: Father God. There are so many times when the things I’ve done have gone unnoticed. People seem to notice my failures much more than my kindness. Empowered by your Spirit, I resolve to make sure those who are kind are recognized by me. I praise you for remembering even my most insignificant act of kindness to those around me. In Jesus name, Amen.
Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. Life is not measured by how much one owns.” Luke 12:15 (NCV)
Contentment. When you think about it, it just may be the single most important thing we seek during this journey called life. We seek for it in relationships, and when one goes sour we reach out to others who may be able to fill the void. We seek it in our jobs, our marriages, our children, the number of toys in our yard and even in the church we attend. It can become the driving force in every thing we do, every thought we have, and every word we speak.
The lack of contentment can push us to try harder or it can lead us to hang our heads in disgrace and failure. It’s the lack of contentment that causes us to succumb to the addictive patterns in our life. Addiction to drugs, pornography, anger, work-aholism and a whole list of other activities that drain us of our desire to succeed and bring on more discontentment. The negative spiral continues. We want to feel good about ourselves, to be content, so we try new things and fail which brings on more frustration and a stronger desire for contentment.
Jesus says, STOP! You are looking for contentment in all the wrong places. Contentment isn’t found in relationships. Even if those relationships are good relationships with your spouse, your children, your friends, earthly relationships can not completely fill the void in your life that we call contentment.
You won’t fill that void with more or new, friends, a better job, a new car, a bigger house, a vacation home or a new toy. Contentment goes well beyond these things. Contentment comes from inside. It comes from being satisfied with who you are, with believing the fact that you are God’s creation, his number one masterpiece. Contentment comes knowing that the job can fail, you can lose your house, and you can find yourself without a friend in this world. But if you have Jesus, you have the strength to go on and the contentment within yourself that says: “I’m okay. Things are tough right now. But I’m okay because of Jesus.”
Contentment doesn’t mean we are satisfied to stay where we are. It means we know that whatever we are going through is for a time and that someday, because of Christ, things will be better. Contentment weathers the storms of life with confidence that who we are isn’t dependent on the outcome of our trials.
PRAYER: Father God, things aren’t going so well for me right now. I’m worried about finances, my kids, my marriage and a whole list of other things. Help me to realize that I have all that I need in who I am because of you. Empower me with your Spirit to be content with who and where I am. Give me strength to endure and to make my world a better place. In your name I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 