As many of you know, I am married to a musician. When I say he loves music, I cannot possibly emphasize the word LOVE too much. He has music playing via IPOD, youtube, spotify, Itunes, or his own personal guitar almost every second that he is home. If he does not actually have music playing, it is because he is currently writing a song in his head and secondary music would distract him. You may wonder what this has to do with anything, but let me explain.
God delights in bringing opposites together. While Charles connects with God and His kingdom primarily through music and praise, I connect with God primarily through the symphony of silence.
Don't get me wrong. A time to worship through music can be SO lifegiving and I definitely connect with God in that way too, but as a whole, maybe my brain's neurons are just firing out of control or something, because the quieter things are in my environment, the more peaceful I tend to feel and the easier it is for me to listen and converse with the Lord.
Because music is not my primary mode of hearing God, when I hear songs and they bring me immediately to my knees, weeping and crying out to the Lord, it's a move of the Holy Spirit. When I call the music prophetic, I mean that the truth of God rings so true, so deep, and so intimate in the words and the music that my soul is overwhelmed. For me to experience this is not a common occurrence, but in the last few days, there have been two such songs and I wanted to share them with you.
The first is called "Tree" and is by a man named Justin Rizzo who is one of the worship leaders at the International House of Prayer (IHOP, and no, I do not mean the place they serve pancakes!) in Kansas City, MO. I loved this song years ago and used to play it on repeat, but it has taken on something new. It is my heart's cry. Recently, the Lord spoke to Charles and I and told us with loving correction that we are, at times, easily shaken and unsteady. The truth according to Scripture (Hebrews) is that God is going to shake everything that can be shaken. What does that mean? My health, my children, my home, every possession we have, my marriage, my friendships, my job, and my very breath can be shaken- and, at some time, likely WILL be shaken. God alone is the rock that cannot be shaken. Whenever the things that are shakeable get shaken, we find out if our roots are grounded upon the one that cannot be shaken by how we respond to the shaking. I find that I can be quick to doubt, quick to be fearful, quick to become angry, quick to be distressed. Lord, make me- make US- trees planted by the stream of living water- JESUS- and may our roots go deep into him so that we are steady and not shaken when storms and earthquakes come and shake everything that can be shaken.
The second song is by Misty Edwards (another IHOP worship leader- do you see a theme? :-)) and is called "All Men Are Broken." I heard this song for the first time last night and it just broke open the floodgates. I have a great dad. He has supported me in thousands of ways and, as far as I'm concerned, gone way above and beyond in terms of making sure that I'm taken care of. He has protected me and worked countless hours to provide for our family. He has given and given and given so that I could see the world, have an education, and be blessed with multitudes of opportunities I would not have had without his generosity. He loves me tremendously and I love him more than he knows. But, as the song says, all men are broken and even the best father, leaves his children with wounds. I know the same truth as a broken mom. As much as I love my daughters, I will hurt them and they will need to be healed from elements of my brokenness. While that is a sad truth, the beautiful truth is that God the Father is the perfect parent. He does us no wrong. He disciplines us with perfect justice. He is patient and perfectly wise. He provides and protects and generously gives. Every good and perfect gift is from His hand.
We all have wounds from our parents. The trouble is that when we think of God as Father, we see him through the lens of our parents' brokenness, most specifically, our father. While God is the one good Father through whom we should see our own fathers, we instead see God through the lens of our father. If we have a father who is easily angered, we believe God to be easily angered. If we have an absent father, we see God as absent. If we have an abusive father, we struggle to trust God not to abuse us. If we have fathers with expectations that are too high, we believe the same of God. Moral of the story: We often relate to God the Father in the same way we relate to our parents, most specifically our fathers.
Why does this matter? Well, over the years, God has taught me something. Living the Christian life starts with living loved. Christian life does not start with obedience or even repentance. It is not first and foremost about morality or purposefulness or intentionality. We love BECAUSE He first loved us. If we are going to love and bleed for the world, we have to live loved because HE bled.
We can also be paralyzed by fear that we will become like those abusive, absent, easily angered, quickly disappointed fathers as we parent our own children. I see in my own life that unless God has taught me a new way to communicate or see situations, I just do what I know. And often, what I know is what I have seen from my parents. Yet, as the song says, God changes people. If we submit ourselves to Christ, He breaks the chains of sin that can entangle generations of families. We do not have to be the same! If we are in Christ, His Spirit dwells in us and He has given us new life. We just need to believe it and submit ourselves to His continuous work of changing us.
Finally, as Misty truthfully sings, we can also be overwhelmed with regret over the way we have parented. Though my children are little, I certainly already have moments where I mourn my impatience, my wrong priorities, my lack of taking time to just 'be' with our children, my lack of wisdom, etc. We have to believe that God created our children and He loves them. We are merely stewards of them for Him. Makafui and Essime belong to Him- not to me. We need to give the regret to Jesus and with repentant hearts, cling to Him to continue to change us and make us like Himself. We have to believe the Father to redeem. He's in the business of making beauty out of ashes.
It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit at work through these songs would be used of God to bring healing, life, peace, and truth to all who listen. May your day be impacted by the truths sung through this brother and sister in Jesus and may we praise the one good Father for His compassion and mercy that are new every morning!!!
God delights in bringing opposites together. While Charles connects with God and His kingdom primarily through music and praise, I connect with God primarily through the symphony of silence.
Don't get me wrong. A time to worship through music can be SO lifegiving and I definitely connect with God in that way too, but as a whole, maybe my brain's neurons are just firing out of control or something, because the quieter things are in my environment, the more peaceful I tend to feel and the easier it is for me to listen and converse with the Lord.
Because music is not my primary mode of hearing God, when I hear songs and they bring me immediately to my knees, weeping and crying out to the Lord, it's a move of the Holy Spirit. When I call the music prophetic, I mean that the truth of God rings so true, so deep, and so intimate in the words and the music that my soul is overwhelmed. For me to experience this is not a common occurrence, but in the last few days, there have been two such songs and I wanted to share them with you.
The first is called "Tree" and is by a man named Justin Rizzo who is one of the worship leaders at the International House of Prayer (IHOP, and no, I do not mean the place they serve pancakes!) in Kansas City, MO. I loved this song years ago and used to play it on repeat, but it has taken on something new. It is my heart's cry. Recently, the Lord spoke to Charles and I and told us with loving correction that we are, at times, easily shaken and unsteady. The truth according to Scripture (Hebrews) is that God is going to shake everything that can be shaken. What does that mean? My health, my children, my home, every possession we have, my marriage, my friendships, my job, and my very breath can be shaken- and, at some time, likely WILL be shaken. God alone is the rock that cannot be shaken. Whenever the things that are shakeable get shaken, we find out if our roots are grounded upon the one that cannot be shaken by how we respond to the shaking. I find that I can be quick to doubt, quick to be fearful, quick to become angry, quick to be distressed. Lord, make me- make US- trees planted by the stream of living water- JESUS- and may our roots go deep into him so that we are steady and not shaken when storms and earthquakes come and shake everything that can be shaken.
The second song is by Misty Edwards (another IHOP worship leader- do you see a theme? :-)) and is called "All Men Are Broken." I heard this song for the first time last night and it just broke open the floodgates. I have a great dad. He has supported me in thousands of ways and, as far as I'm concerned, gone way above and beyond in terms of making sure that I'm taken care of. He has protected me and worked countless hours to provide for our family. He has given and given and given so that I could see the world, have an education, and be blessed with multitudes of opportunities I would not have had without his generosity. He loves me tremendously and I love him more than he knows. But, as the song says, all men are broken and even the best father, leaves his children with wounds. I know the same truth as a broken mom. As much as I love my daughters, I will hurt them and they will need to be healed from elements of my brokenness. While that is a sad truth, the beautiful truth is that God the Father is the perfect parent. He does us no wrong. He disciplines us with perfect justice. He is patient and perfectly wise. He provides and protects and generously gives. Every good and perfect gift is from His hand.
We all have wounds from our parents. The trouble is that when we think of God as Father, we see him through the lens of our parents' brokenness, most specifically, our father. While God is the one good Father through whom we should see our own fathers, we instead see God through the lens of our father. If we have a father who is easily angered, we believe God to be easily angered. If we have an absent father, we see God as absent. If we have an abusive father, we struggle to trust God not to abuse us. If we have fathers with expectations that are too high, we believe the same of God. Moral of the story: We often relate to God the Father in the same way we relate to our parents, most specifically our fathers.
Why does this matter? Well, over the years, God has taught me something. Living the Christian life starts with living loved. Christian life does not start with obedience or even repentance. It is not first and foremost about morality or purposefulness or intentionality. We love BECAUSE He first loved us. If we are going to love and bleed for the world, we have to live loved because HE bled.
We can also be paralyzed by fear that we will become like those abusive, absent, easily angered, quickly disappointed fathers as we parent our own children. I see in my own life that unless God has taught me a new way to communicate or see situations, I just do what I know. And often, what I know is what I have seen from my parents. Yet, as the song says, God changes people. If we submit ourselves to Christ, He breaks the chains of sin that can entangle generations of families. We do not have to be the same! If we are in Christ, His Spirit dwells in us and He has given us new life. We just need to believe it and submit ourselves to His continuous work of changing us.
Finally, as Misty truthfully sings, we can also be overwhelmed with regret over the way we have parented. Though my children are little, I certainly already have moments where I mourn my impatience, my wrong priorities, my lack of taking time to just 'be' with our children, my lack of wisdom, etc. We have to believe that God created our children and He loves them. We are merely stewards of them for Him. Makafui and Essime belong to Him- not to me. We need to give the regret to Jesus and with repentant hearts, cling to Him to continue to change us and make us like Himself. We have to believe the Father to redeem. He's in the business of making beauty out of ashes.
It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit at work through these songs would be used of God to bring healing, life, peace, and truth to all who listen. May your day be impacted by the truths sung through this brother and sister in Jesus and may we praise the one good Father for His compassion and mercy that are new every morning!!!
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