I hope you are having a great day as you read this post! May the Lord our God richly bless you and your day with His presence and power at work in your life! I am excited to have a new song on the set list planned for this week at Eagleville Bible Church. It is my privilege to be able to put new songs on the lips and hearts of those that attend our Church, and it is especially encouraging to do so when that song is full of great truths and joy!
Here is the list of songs that we are doing this week (7/11/21) at Eagleville Bible Church:
- House of the Lord, (YouTube Link)
- Heb 13:8,
- Rev 1:8,
- 1 Cor 15:57,
- Ps 28:7,
- Who Am I, (YouTube Link)
- Ps 8:4,
- Heb 2:6,
- Heb 4:15,
- Ps 78:39,
- Is 43:1,
- Defender, (YouTube Link)
- Ex 14:13-14,
- 2 Chron 20:15,17-24,26-27,
- Ps 48:3,14,
- Ps 46:10 (NIV),
- Isa 19:20,
- Glory to God Forever, (YouTube Link)
- Gen 1:1,
- Rev 19:16,
- Isa 42:12,
- Ps 150:6,
- Rom 12:1,
Devotional Thought
I wonder how many of us have forgotten the blessings of being counted as a child, co-heir of God? I know that so often throughout the day I have to continually come back to my new identity in Christ! It is a great practice, and I can definitely tell when I do not rehearse who I am in Christ throughout the day.
We are singing a song called Who Am I by Casting Crowns, and I love that it reminds us that we do not deserve to be known by God nor do we have any reason that He should show us any kindness or favor of any sort. We are a sinful people who deserve separation from God because of that sinfulness. The Creator of the universe, the God of all, the King of kings, has decided to show us His kindness and love despite our depravity! He is choosing to be gracious and merciful to a people who absolutely despised and rejected Him at one point or another in their lives. Our God decided to overlook our times of ignorance in order to patiently and graciously provide that which we so desperately needed – a Savior. His name is Jesus Christ, and it is through Him that we find out how truly valuable we are to God.
This Savior, this Defender from Heaven, came to earth and became one of us – minus the sin! He lived a perfect life, provided us access to forgiveness and grace through His sacrificial death on the Cross, and through His resurrection granted each of us the opportunity for eternal life in His Name! This is why we Glory in His Name! This is why we ascribe the glory due His Name! He saved us, Hallelujah!
Once we have come to know God through faith, then we can fully understand a song like Defender. In this song we sing lyrics like “Your love becomes my greatest defense”, or “You come back with the head of my enemy and call it my victory”! Because we who know that God is with us and is fighting our battles have experienced this truth over and over in our lives. Seeing God faithfully at work in our finances, relationships, peace, healing, etc. This is why we decide to spend our days in worship, using our breath to bring praise to the God who goes before us and fights our battles! We have seen His reliability, we have heard the testimonies of His trustworthiness at work in the lives of those we love, and we seek to see more of Him at work in not only our lives but the lives of all that we see! God is good, and will provide His salvation to all who call upon Him for salvation! Have you called upon Him? Have you seen your need for His deliverance in your life? What are you waiting on, why don’t you fully submit yourself to His Lordship right now? If you have already done so, praise God and stay in the spirit of worship throughout all of your days!! He is worthy!
We see a story in 2 Chronicles that explains in the physical realm what we all experience (if we understand and believe) in the spiritual realm. King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah came under attack by a huge army (4 armies joined together to attack them), and they were absolutely helpless save God’s intervention. They felt this desperation so badly that they all gathered together in the middle of Jerusalem, fasted, and prayed until the Lord spoke to them directing them of the next steps to take! Can you imagine the faith and determination it must have taken these people to stay put while an enemy of vast power and strength came at them to attack them? I am here to inform you right now that there is a spiritual realm, and that there are powerful forces of the air that are poised to attack you right now. I don’t say that to scare you, but that is the reality of what is happening in the spiritual realm.
So, the people finally got a response from the Lord through a prophet named Jahaziel. He told them that they should not fear (exactly what God is saying to you as you read this post, especially what I just wrote in the previous paragraph!) or be discouraged, because this battle is not theirs to fight but the Lord’s! I could imagine that there must have been some confusion and maybe even some eye roles at that proclamation! There may have been some that said, “Ok, that is great Jahaziel but now what are we to do?” This is where the interesting part of this story comes in.
He said, you will go out to face them tomorrow, but not to worry because you are going to see the deliverance of the Lord as He fights this battle for them! At this report, the people all fell with their face to the ground and worshipped the Lord who just blessed them with some really great news (provided that it was true and not just a false prophet spewing some “peaceful” message at them to calm their fears) through this man! Well, early the next morning they got up and set out for the battle. Check out what the King encouraged the people with:
“Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.””
2 Chronicles 20:20 (NIV)
He then decided that the best thing to do was to put the singers and musicians out in front to lead them to the battle line! Not the strongest and most valiant of the men, trained for battle, but musicians were to lead them with this song on their lips:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for His love endures forever.”
2 Chron 20:21 (b)
It says that when they got to the place of battle all they seen was dead bodies all over the land! Unbeknownst to the people of Judah, when they started singing praises to the Lord their God, He turned the enemies on each other and they annihilated themselves! God went before them and used their enemies to destroy the enemies! Oh I hope that this is stirring your heart to see what happens in the spiritual realm when we use our breath to bring our God praise and worship – even in the midst of the biggest or hardest challenges! May God bless you with confidence to utter a praise in all of your circumstances!
“On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, where they praised the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Berakah to this day.”
2 Chron 20:26
I pray that you have many Valleys of blessing (which is what Valley of Berakah means) as you choose to trust God and worship Him in the midst of any and all circumstances. It is this sort of mentality that will truly fill our sanctuaries with joyful and enthusiastic worship services! When we trust in our Deliverer and seek Him through praise and worship to fight our battles, we will experience a joy that we never thought possible! Just one day earlier the people of Judah thought they were finished, that they were hopeless, but when they decided to trust God and to put worship out ahead of their journey they seen a miracle that produced in them a heart of gratitude and joy that they didn’t have before that step of faith!
Our new song tells of singing to the God who heals, the God who saves, the God who always makes a way! It reminds us of the God who opened the prison doors, parted the sea, turns beggars into royalty, prisoners into free citizens of the Kingdom of God! This is why there must be joy in the House of the Lord! This is why there must be shouts of praise in His house each time we gather to worship Him! Our Defender deserves no less than hearts that exult over His goodness! He is worthy.
So, is there joy in the house of the Lord? That can only be answered by each person represented in our Churches each time we worship together. I believe it is the one who understands their depravity to its fullest and the nature of what they were delivered from that will be expressing their joy and gratitude with the fullest conviction! I believe its the one who is able to lift their head above the circumstances that seem to be clouding the reality of God at work in their lives, and choose to trust Him through the trials they face that will be most enthusiastic in their praises! I believe it’s the one who follows the advice in the Bible, in the book of James, where it says to count it all joy when faced with various trials because we know that there is a deeper work happening through them that will not wait until Sunday to offer up a half-hearted utterance (maybe even a mumble with arms crossed) but will at all times have a hearty praise spewing from their lips!
- Are you joyful when you come to Church, and how do you express that joy to the King of kings?
It is just something that I would like to challenge you to think about, and if needed then I encourage you to repent of a lack of true heart-felt worship and praise. Don’t wait till Sunday to start praising our God with all of your heart though, do it now! Stop everything and offer up a song from your spirit that exclaims your gratitude for the God who delivered you from your life of sin and death! How much shouting and praising would you do if you seen a mighty warrior go to battle and defeat an enemy that was poised to kill you in the physical realm? Well, I am reminding us all right now that in the same way our King Jesus did that in the Spiritual realm for each of us! So, let’s shout for joy at all times!!!
God bless you!
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
