The Power Of The Song
Revelation
14
When I first started thinking about writing a Bible blog, I
will confess that I was a bit nervous and yet very excited. As a student of
God's Word for the past five years, I can personally say I have been so blessed
in so many ways. Reading and studying God's Word has been the greatest adventure
of my entire life. My goal in writing these Bible blogs is to help people grow
in their faith, give them hope from God's Word and show them that studying the bible truly is the greatest adventure anyone will ever go on by providing
biblical solutions to everyday life.
My first Bible blog comes out of
the book of Revelation 14. In this chapter John the Apostle is blessed enough
to hear one of the greatest praise songs in all of history. This song was song
by a group of believers who had been redeemed from the earth out of a time of
great trial and suffering. This song of worship was so special that John goes
on to say in verse 3 of chapter 14 that no one could learn the song except the
144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. As I was studying this passage this
past week, I began to think about the power of praise and worship to God through
the power of lifting our voices up to him through joyful singing. I know first
hand what kind of power singing praises to God can have on a person's given
situation in life. I found this out when I had my legs rebuilt from top to
bottom. You see, I was born with a disability known as Cerebral Palsy. It is
a disability that effects one part of a person's body and causes it to not to work as well as all
the other parts do. When I was about 15 years of age, I began experiencing
intense pain in my legs whenever I walked. As a result, a group of medical
experts told me I would have to have my legs rebuilt. So in the summer of 2005,
I had the biggest operation in my entire life. During this time, the
recovery stage was very difficult at best. Many times I would feel sad and
depressed because of the pain I was experiencing. However one of the things that
kept my mind off the physical pain and helped me keep my mind on God was singing
praise songs to him. One of my favorite songs during this time period when I
was going through the trial of suffering and perseverance was by the artist,
Third Day, "Cry Out To Jesus." I can remember spending countless hours
rehearsing the chorus of that song
over and over in my heart and in my head.
"There is hope for the hopeless, rest
for the weary and love for the broken heart, there is grace and forgiveness,
mercy and healing, He'll meet you where ever you are, you just cry out to Jesus."
I
have often wondered why that song meant so much to me during the season of my
life when I first heard it. I suppose the reason is because I was living out
the message of that song in my daily life at the time. I was living in a
situation where I was having to cry out to Jesus on a daily basis. Revelation 14,
in a way, paints the same picture for us. The text says in verse 3 that no one
could learn the song of the redeemed except the 144,000 Jewish witnesses who
had been redeemed from the earth - who had been called out from the world to
carry out God's purpose at that particular time. They were to be
in the world but not of the world.
Jesus has the same commandment for us as believers today: we are to be of
the world but not in the world. We must always remember we, like the 144,000 in
Revelation 14, belong to Jesus not to the world. We are simply God's ambassadors
carrying out his plans for the world and singing the songs he has given us to
sing. I believe firmly from studying this passage of scripture that the reason
no one could learn the song was because no one else had lived it or experienced it from their perspective.
From their unique vantage point,
God gave them a song that only they themselves could learn.
I feel the same is true for
Christians today. Whatever your situation may be in life, today my hope and
prayer for you as you read this blog is that God would give you a new song to
sing in your heart and in your soul wherever you are. Whether your situation is
great, sad, confusing, uncertain, uneasy, pleasant, joyful, crazy, or whatever
it may be, I pray that God would allow you to find a song that would speak directly
into the situation you are faced with in your life. One of the great things I
love about being a believer is learning new songs that speak directly into my
life at a particular season in my life. However I have learned that these kind
of worship songs only come as I wait patently on the Lord. The
great Psalm writer, David, experienced the same. David wrote his songs and he waited patiently for the
Lord. It is only as you wait with faith and patience for the Lord that not only
will you learn the power of a new song with the words of your mouth, but you will
learn them in your heart as well. And once you realize the power of these songs about
the faith we have in Jesus Christ, no one will be able to take
them away from you. You will be able to call upon them whenever your faced with
a new situation in life as you seek to live out his Word and his promises in
your everyday life.
Please answer this question for me
at the bottom if you feel comfortable. Do you have a testimony of a time when
God gave you a new song to sing in what seemed like a hopeless situation? If so,
please share with myself and others........thank you. Evan
