One night while I was trying to fall asleep and listening to my iPod, a song I had never heard of before came on: Sugarland’s “Fall Into Me”. Normally, I skip over songs if I don’t know them or they don’t interest me in the first 10 seconds, but tonight, I just listened.
As the song was playing, instead of hearing Jennifer Nettles singing to me, I felt God singing the words that were playing through my ear-buds. As soon as the song was over, I knew that I needed to write down the feelings and thoughts that had just captured me for those four sweet minutes. My journal entry then turned into a sermon – my very first sermon – that I was blessed to be able to deliver the following Sunday.
The song is posted right below… and my sermon is written below the song. I hope you will take time to see how this song can apply to your life, as well. Let God sing to you as he sang to me while I was in my tent here in Nhkata Bay, Malawi.
Life is full of events and emotions. We experience SO much each day – it’s incredible! God made us beings that are able to see, touch, feel, hear and take in life in various ways.
One awesome part about these feelings and experiences is that we are able to share all of them with other people in our lives.
God has blessed humans with the comfort of community. He gave us others to surround us with communication, to share with, to provide help and council for, to laugh with, and so much more. He never intended for humans to go through this life alone – and He shows us this in the beautiful way that Jesus demonstrated how we should live and in many other stories throughout the Bible – one of these being the creation of man:
In Genesis 2:18 it is written: “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'”
God created community to help us grow. He has given us family, friends and acquaintances to walk alongside of us through life’s ups and downs. He intended for us to use this community and build relationships with others by talking about our fears, our excitements, our joys, our worries, our sadness, our laughter, our questions, our happiness, our gratefulness, and so much more.
As I mentioned earlier, God never intended for us to go through this life alone; but He also didn’t intend for the community of people in our lives to replace our relationship with Him. He delights in the relationships He has with us as individuals and expects us to come to Him as well. To come to Him FIRST.
David, in the Bible, is a great example of this. God refers to David as “a man after my own heart,” in Acts 13:22. David was the greatest king of Israel and a very popular man. He definitely was NOT lacking for community and could have had any person he needed or wanted right by his side when he was angry, happy, excited, confused, hurt or sad. However, we see in the book of Psalm that he always brought his feelings straight to God first, before talking about it with anyone else.
We have a tendency to turn to God in times of trouble or sadness, but what about when life is really great?! Do you talk to Him then?
How many of you enjoy running to someone and exclaiming, “Guess what?!” and then spreading your joy by sharing something funny or exciting that has just happened? And do you remember how great it felt as a kid to come home and have your parents ask, “How’d your day go?” I used to tell mine so many crazy stories about who said what or who did what throughout the day. Sharing life with others is normal, and it’s exciting!
David was a man who did this with the Lord. He would simply write to God about anything and everything that was on his mind. He was as excited and as giddy as a child telling stories, or sometimes we see him furious and angry, while still at other times he shows his vulnerability in his weaknesses and fears. His prayers to God weren’t all about needs and wants from the Lord; they were just him sharing life with the God who gave it to him.
One example of this is Psalm 8:1-9:
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
We see here that David was experiencing joy and wonder and wanted to share this happiness with God. This is what made his relationship with God so special… because that’s what it was – a true relationship.
In my life God has blessed me. He has given me quite a comfortable life full of amazing people and genuine relationships. Sure, there have been the ups and downs, arguments and misunderstandings, but through it all, they’ve always been there for me.
The other day the girls and I were challenged during Team Time to think of a comfort that we are all still holding on to… something that is keeping us from being completely vulnerable in this time in our lives.
I didn’t realize until I was listening to this song that my family and friends were a “comfort” for me. Over the course of my 26 years I have really taken advantage of how comfortable they made my life. God gives us good things to bless us, but I never realized that this particular area was SO good, I was actually forgetting about God.
Whenever I was excited, I turned to my family and friends. Whenever I was happy, I turned to my family and friends. When I was struggling, sad or needing comfort and advice, I turned to my family and friends, also. And they did a magnificent job at sharing my joys and happiness, or being my comfort and encouragement, when needed. God gave them to me for this reason, but that’s not who He intended for me to go to first and foremost. HE should have been the one I was reaching out to initially.
No one knows me and what I’m going through better than my Heavenly Father, but I never understood how someone I couldn’t see, hear, or touch could truly share in my happiness, or jump for joy with me, or comfort me in times of trouble or sadness.
All of my life growing up I’d pray, but I’d only pray when I needed something; when I needed healing, strength, or peace. Sometimes I’d go to God out of excitement and gratefulness for something in my life, but that wasn’t often. Often times I would cry to God when what I was facing was completely unbearable, but I have to admit that He and His love for me was not the first thing I’d run to.
First was my mom – my mother is my best friend and we have been through so much together! I enjoyed laughing with her at silly things, appreciated being able to cry with her during the hard times, or just live normally our everyday lives together. Sometimes I’m not sure how she put up with me, but she did and now our relationship is unique, close, and incredibly special. She is the most amazing, loving, intelligent, and funny woman that I know. To me, my mom could fix and comfort me through anything.
Second was Tim. No, he wasn’t always physically around, but knowing that I could call him and talk to him about anything I was going through – good or bad – made life that much sweeter. The way he would delight in my achievements and happiness, or listen to me during my confusions and sadness was like no other friendship I’d had before. He was my very best comfort and always ready with great, loving Biblical advice for any situation. Tim was the best pick-me-up and partner in crime for anything and everything that came my way.
Since being on this crazy adventure called the World Race, I haven’t been able to talk to mom much due to the lack of internet, and this past year the wretched long distance finally got the better of my and Tim’s relationship, so I no longer have him to talk to either.
So where is my comfort now?
I have my team – these amazing Godly women – but lately I’ve been reaching out to, sincerely talking to, and listening to God.
He knows everything I am going to say even before it hits my lips and He is quick to comfort me or share my excitement and delight. I’ve learned that even though I can’t see Him and though He isn’t physically here, I can still listen to Him and hear what He is trying to tell me. His words to me have come through verses and stories in the Bible, through others around me, through characters in the Bible that I’m able to relate to, through a beautiful sunrise over Lake Malawi, through a cool breeze on a hot day, or in this case – through a song.
Now that I have no one or nothing else to use as my comfortable “run-to”, God is yelling at me: “See how much I can comfort you and delight with you? Let ME be the one that you come to with everything first. I can be your joy and your comfort. All you have to do is reach out to me and let me.”
Fall into me! My arms are stretched wide open, you don’t have to say a word. I wanna be the one you reach for first.
So I’ve made it a point to be more like David. I want to live and experience life like God has created me to do. I want great relationships with family and friends that He has blessed me with, but I also want to get to know Him better and learn to come to Him first with all that I’m experiencing.
I want to be a WOMAN after God’s own heart.
