Welcome to the first post from my Sing a New Song Blog Series! As someone who has always connected with music, I am constantly searching for new songs. The bible tells us to “sing a new song unto the Lord” in many different psalms. While it is certainly never bad to sing the same songs over and over again (especially when many songs now-a-days are plucked right from scripture), sometimes things can get stale! How many times have you been listening to a song on the radio and thought “Ugh, change it! I’m so sick of this song!” I remember going to Catholic school in middle school and being required to recite the “Our Father” multiple times a day. This prayer went from being the very basis of how we should pray and give thanks to God, to something I was mindlessly mumbling when required.
In this series, I will be featuring a new song in every post! I will be talking about how it blessed me or got me through a season, and will also dig into scripture. After all, it is important that we know the message and scriptures behind these songs, if we are going to profess and sing them!
*references to the song will be marked in purple*
“I’ve found a life that is clearer than the deep blue skies. It’s true, you were right there. I can see You in the days gone by. Your promise never left my side. I know sometimes I try to give up, still you catch me when I fall from high. I see you in the days gone by.”
Days Gone By: Hillsong Young and Free (click link to listen)
When I started this World Race journey, I was coming out of a place of constant anxiety and fear. Everything in me wanted to give up, to stay down.
But that’s the thing with fear.
Its a liar.
Slowly but surely I began to feel the Lord’s truth wash over me. A truth that can only be maintained by becoming armored with the living, inspired Word of God.
So every time I began to feel anxiety, I would immediately pull out my bible or bring up my bible app (because let’s be honest, the enemy doesn’t just come to steal, kill, and destroy in the comfort of your own home, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry my bible with me every where I go lol).
I would put on His amour.
Ephesians 6:10-11 says, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
We know the evil in our lives and we can choose to “be strong in the Lord” and turn away from that evil. We are not “unaware of his schemes” ( 2 Corinthians 2:11).
The days will go by anyway. You can either decide to dwell in fear and anxiety, or you can decide to dwell in His promises for you.
He promises that every day that goes by, he will be by your side.
Since I realized this powerful truth, becoming armored with God’s truth isn’t just something I would do when anxiety came a-knocking. I go to sleep at night excited to wake up the next morning and get in the Word. Like, Im talking the kind of excitement I usually get after a long day’s work and I finally get to lay in bed and watch Netflix.
It feels good. I feel GOOD.
I have clarity.
Even just writing this blog has felt easier that my previous posts. I’ve been able to recall scriptures without having to look them up.
I feel armored. And it’s an armor whose chainlink cannot be broken.
Since I’ve become intentional about my time in the word, my life has been blessed beyond measure. I am the happiest I have felt in a long time.
But, in this happy place I have also felt conceit creep in to my life. I would go to church and more often than not would listen to the message and think “Oh that doesn’t apply to me. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
I felt pride in that.
[Enter “Thorn in the Flesh”]
The idea of a “Thorn in the Flesh” comes from 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Like the apostle Paul, I won’t explain what my thorn is. Mostly because I’m not ready to share but also because of a point made in an article by Jon Bloom titled, “Why You Have That Thorn”.
Bloom writes, “The fact that we really don’t know what Paul’s thorn was turns out to be both merciful and instructive to us. It’s merciful because, given the various possibilities, we all can identify with Paul to some degree in our afflictions. It’s instructive because what Paul’s thorn was isn’t the point. The point is what God’s purpose was for the thorn.”
(side note: A thorn could be physical, mental, spiritual, a person. Anything really. Not everything the enemy throws at you is meant as a thorn in the flesh. Make no mistake that a thorn is something given to you by God. Ask Him to reveal to you what His purpose is for that thorn!)
When my thorn hurts me so badly that I spend the rest of the day in tears wondering what I did wrong, God invites me to be encircled in His arms, knowing that He will catch me when I fall. This thorn will only make me stronger, more compassionate to others who go through similar things, and will give Him the Glory.
So when you feel weak, put on His armor.
When you feel strong, be humble.
“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
“I can see You in the days gone by.”
Fundraising Update!
It might not have posted by the time you read this, but I am officially at $6,000 out of the total $18,200!! God has been providing in ways I never dreamed and I can’t wait to see what He does next! My next deadline of $10,000 is September 21st. I have a couple of fundraisers in the works that I will update y’all about soon! Currently, my only fundraiser is Adopt-A-Box. Pick a box and that box is how much you donate! Comment below or message me on social media to find out how to give!
Thanks for reading!
