“All the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing: Great are You, Lord! It’s Your breath in our lungs, and we pour out our praise, pour out our praise. It’s Your breath in our lungs, and we pour out our praise to You only.”
These words brought life to my soul this morning in church as hundreds of voices sang together in a most beautiful harmony. I forget that even the breath that enters and leaves my mouth millions of times per day is not my own. God gave me life in one breath, and it is only by His grace and love that I am still alive and breathing today.
This was a beautiful reminder of how every ounce of our being, even our bones, praise God. I can’t praise Him with just one part of me, but have to surrender every single ounce of my body to Him. He doesn’t want just a part of you, He wants all of you and your life will only be better for it.
I am very much a type A personality and am so used to doing everything for myself that, even since I gave my life to Christ, I still have a tendency to rely less on Him and more on my own strength. When this goes on for a prolonged period of time, I am left physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. I have constantly needed reminders these last few weeks that God has this. He has every detail of my life planned out until my time on this earth is finished.
He already knows every mess up, wrong turn, victory and blessing that will happen!
When I finally get to a point where I am so worn down that all I can do is be reminded of how much I need God to hold me up and carry the weight, it is so refreshing to be able to hand it over! He is right there, with a loving smile on His face and His hand stretched out saying, “Give it over to me, Kyla, you weren’t meant to carry that alone.”
It is so wonderful to have a God who truly cares and wants to walk through this life TOGETHER with us. He did not create us to do anything alone, and even when we try to do it all in our human strength and ignore Him, He still loves us and extends us grace and mercy AGAIN! I am not worthy of an unconditional love that puts up with my stubbornness and pride, but I am so blessed to know the One who still freely gives it without question.
Jesus did not die on a cross for us to try and get through life by a thread. He bore the weight of ALL of our sin and died with it so that He could rise again 3 days later and conquer death once and for all! Remember that Jesus holds the keys to the Kingdom, and you also have them available to you when you ask Him into your heart!
So you are NO LONGER A SLAVE to sin.
The definition of “slave” is: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.
You no longer have to be bound in chains to your pride, lust, greed, perfectionism, drugs, alcohol, independence, or any other thing you may struggle with. Yes, it takes a process of re-training your brain not to go back to old habits, but know that you have the power of Christ available you to overcome ANY stronghold! All you have to do is ask Him to live in your heart, make you new and whole and hand it all over to Him!
This afternoon I was driving between Odessa and Midland and in my rearview mirror dark clouds and a thunderstorm were releasing over Odessa. In front of me, over Midland, there was a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds and sunshine. In that moment I heard,
“Kyla, this is the same as your life. Behind you there are raging storms and ahead of you the road is clear. You need to leave those storms in the past and walk in the freedom I have given you.”
In that moment, I just remembered again how much I think of my past and start putting on my old mentality and thought processes that lead me back to trying to carry the weight on my own. And in my weakness, God reminds me that He is there, willing and ready to carry the burden for me.
Are you bound up and feeling stuck? Are you struggling with something or many things that make you feel like a slave? Remember that God put the breath in your lungs and that when you pour out praise from every ounce of your body, He will faithfully come through and meet where you are. He will take away the pain, guilt, shame, condemnation, emptiness and loneliness.
He will show you an unconditional love that no human on this earth can give you. He will show you that in your own weakness, He can make you strong!
Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
