I’ve been posting worship songs that reflected my heart to “yearn” for God, but there are just times you want to jump, shout, and be filled with an exuberance. That is where this song comes in. I rejoice that God, the “maker of the heavens knows my name”. My soul will ever sing His praise!
Tag: praise
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1:3-8 (NLT)
How do you see yourself? What is the tape that plays in your head? What fears drive you? What limits do you place on yourself? Have you disqualified yourself from even trying to step out and trust God? “I could never do __________ because _________.”
Here’s what I see in this verse. God loves you and chose you! He did this BEFORE _________________ (insert limit here).
He decided in advance. He chose before. He loved! Before any of us did what we did. And yet I still have talked myself out of trying sometimes. As if my situation is the exception. That somehow my sin or incompetence or fear or failure is the ONE that God can’t handle. The ONE that causes Him to step back and say, “Oh, I didn’t see that coming. You’re right, this doesn’t apply to you.” The ARROGANCE! God knew exactly what and who I would be before the earth was formed and He still loved, chose and adopted me – to be holy and blameless and part of His family.
He has showered His grace and kindness. He purchased my freedom. These are extravagant descriptions. These are bold actions. These are powerful declarations and the ONLY reasonable response is to praise Him. And look at what it says, He did this because He WANTED to and it gave Him GREAT PLEASURE! So what do we do? We praise Him. We give our lives to Him!
Am I holy? No. Am I righteous? No! Am I anything special? No. The answer is always no, IF it’s based on me alone. But God loved and chose and decided that I was in fact holy and righteous and special and it gave Him pleasure to shower me with kindness and grace and freedom. “And now I get to be what I got to be!”*
But It’s not about ME! It’s about who God is!
He has declared me free and all my internal exceptions are nullified. I don’t have a case to not step into the plans God has for me. I need to stop disqualifying myself and instead see myself as God sees me. To live up to who He has called and allowed me to be and become.
And instead of spending emotional energy focusing on my shortcomings, I need to spend it focusing on God’s sufficiency.
Thank you God for your great love and kindness. That no matter the condition I am in, you chose me in advance to become part of your family. Thank you for purchasing my freedom! Please forgive me for thinking that somehow I was the exception to your grace and disqualifying myself from being more available to your purposes. Help me to focus instead on your sufficiency!
*I heard Steve Fry say this years ago and it has always stuck with me!