“He loves us, Oh how he loves us, Oh how he loves….”
How many times have you sat in church and thought, oh I LOVE this song, I wish I could sing like him or her? I have! I love to sing, yet don’t think that is the strongest gift I have been blessed with. I don’t think twice about singing along with the radio in our car, or singing in the shower. Yet when I get to church…I become silent and hold out on God. I hold out on the beautiful gift that He has given me, the gift of sharing a token of my love and affections to Him because of what it might sound like.
God doesn’t care how I sing. He just wants me to sing! He wants us to use our voices to praise him. The Lord created us to Praise and worships Him. Yet we think we have to sound “beautiful” to truly make a joyful noise unto the Lord. I want to encourage you to sing it out, who cares what you sound like. There is joy and blessing in praising our Lord.
Our team arrived in Mpeketoni, Kenya (pronounced Peketoni, short e, long o sound) and I was blown away with their worship. They truly have embraced the verses about making a joyful noise unto the Lord. With boldness they belt it out. I can honestly say not every one of them has been blessed with a tremendous vocal talent, yet even to my ears it is a JOYFUL noise. We have fellowship every night. Fellowship consists of a prayer followed by a few songs (in English) then a song in Swahili, and then someone shares a message and then closed by a prayer. The first night we participated in this we sang our “American/English songs” and then WHOA…they sang just ONE Swahili song and it sounded like the roof was coming off. They had no more members singing than we did. The difference was they were boldly praising the Lord. No one told them you have to sing good to make a joyful noise. The only qualification was…. sing praises to the Lord. And Praise they do! It is so beautiful to hear, even the not so beautiful voices….because I can hear that their heart that is totally in it.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Deut. 6:5
When we sing praises to the lord, we are doing more than just singing songs. We are using our voices and words of praise to invite the Holy Spirit to be present among us. The Lord takes delight in His children singing praises unto Him. We can praise the Lord in all kinds of ways. We can sing, we can praise Him in prayer, we can read psalms, we can draw and paint, and we can even dance. Almost anything you can imagine, you can do in reverence to the Lord. I have read a lot this month about praising and worshiping the Lord and I’m convinced that He just longs to have us worship him no matter what we are doing. Have you ever woken up with a worship song in your head? Those are the times the Spirit is speaking to us, reminding us ever so gently to begin our day thanking the Lord for the blessings He has so richly bestowed upon us. Begin to sing those songs, don’t dismiss them. Remember our creator is so WORTHY to be praised. He simply wants to share in intimacy with us. Intimacy begins by humbly showing praise to Him for the ways He is continually with us. Thank Him for your blessings, cry out to Him in thanksgiving for the things He has brought you through. In reverence, thank the Lord for His almighty presence in our lives.
He has given us such an amazing gift, the gift of His Son. What an incredible Father we have in heaven. A father who loves us enough to allow us to CHOOSE him. Wow, what a gift! He KNOWS what is best for us, yet gives us the freedom to choose Him or not to. Knowing all the while, when we don’t choose Him the consequences of our sin will ultimately hurt us and those around us. He loves us gently and so completely. He offers us the gift of Hope, Peace and Joy that we can have daily as well as an eternity to look forward to with Him. The amazing thing about God’s incredible, unconditional LOVE for us is that it is ALWAYS available. We as humans mess up, even with the best of intentions, yet our precious father in heaven is always waiting with open arms to welcome us back to His love.
“Yet a time is coming and now has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, because they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:23
