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