This morning I am reading all these devotionals along with my Proverbs and the reading of the day. Sometimes do you ever just feel flat? Not for lack of trying as you can see. I mean I start my day with a hand-full of devotions~ listen to several sermons and still feel like I just don't have anything to offer.
I don't even feel like I have anything to share on this blog this very morning. I just need God Almighty to reach down and give me a hug. Do you know what I mean? I don't drink or smoke or run with those who do~ I need to hear a message to help me make it through the crisis of the day. And we all have those~ don't we? If not ~ we only have to look at our National News to have our hearts bleed for our brothers and sisters being beheaded on the other side of the world.
I am having that kind of day. I read my Bible and many greater than I had these kind of times too. You know what I do when this happens? I begin to sing. I sing~ "What can take away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."
I go back to a time when I was a little girl sitting in a little brick building with wooden pews. I loved sitting in the pew and singing to Jesus. I felt such joy in my soul as a 5-year-old girl. The message was a little over my head but oh how those songs stirred my heart to love Jesus more. The Jesus who would never leave me or forsake me. I remember thinking there were fears outside those plaster walls but inside I felt safe and secure. I felt as if Jesus Himself picked me up and hugged me as I sang those old-fashioned hymns. Those hymns which I come to glean from through personal experience all my almost 50 years on this earth.
Nothing makes me smile like when I sing~ "Count your many blessings name them one by one….." I mean my empty nest becomes a brighter place to be these days when I am naming my blessings one by one.
One of my favorites is ~ "I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, And He never forsaketh His own: He will call me some day to His palace above, I shall dwell by His glorious throne." I am just imaging what that day will be like~ an eternal Spring. It helps to put in perspective what really matters today. I am so thankful that I am a child of His love. Just think about that for a little while.
Songs of old that I have learned from my youth have ministered to my soul when the times get tough. They lighten my burden when I feel alone, afraid, misunderstood, rejected, frustrated, overwhelmed and hopeless.
The other day I was helping by filling in at a church office when I heard beautiful music. It compelled me to follow the beautiful sound into the Sanctuary. A young lady was singing and I closed my eyes and listened to her song as she practiced. It just did my heart good. I believe that's what happens when we sing praises and music to our God. I just imagine He bends His ear to our tune. He leans in a little closer. I bet it even puts a smile on His face. I am just sure it stirs the very heart of God when His children sing to Him even with the simplest of songs such as ~ "Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so."
