Praise His Name!
The Lord has put on my heart and convicted me that the praise from my lips has become less. Not in the sense that I have stopped praising God altogether but being vocal with my praise on my lips.
Praising the Lord out loud is different since the pandemic has happened. Corporate worship and fellowship look different especially since most churches have shut down or not opened back up completely.
Thus, worship on Sundays looks different for me personally. It has become more isolated in some sense then again at times it looks more intimate with God on the other hand. Yet there is something about being in a church sanctuary with fellow believers praising God almighty that allows your heart to rest in God's presence.
The point is you do not realize how much you could miss something so little in a big way unless you've been removed from it for a while.
Another way that God has convicted me in this area is how I have let the insecurities from my past and past experiences with people who have tried to put labels of not worthy or not good enough on me.
Keep me from singing with all of my heart. You know that point where you get within a worship service where nothing else matters and everybody around you just becomes less noticeable but still a part of it.
For a time I allowed that insecurity to linger within my mind and heart. But God has shown me it is time to put it down and walk in who He calls me to be not what other people's brokenness tries to label me with.
It is time to set down the broken record of insecurities to pick up the sword of truth and wield it. It is time to set down other people's false labels and pick up God's spoken truth of how I am being loved, seen, and known completely by Him alone.
The Lord has also shown me that, He has called me to be a witness for the gospel. Just like He calls each one of us to be His witnesses for the gospel.
God also has entrusted us to further the gospel as His chosen people whom He loves by equipping us with spiritual gifts. To be able to go out and share His love with others by being able to set down our own insecurities by putting others first, before our selfish desires.
"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me, there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God. Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?"(Isaiah 43:10-13ESV).
Anyway, He has been convicting me that I have not been praising Him out loud as much. In how I need to let go and turn the praise music on more to soak in His presence. Especially, with this song that I loved a long time ago called "At The Cross" which was recorded by Hillsong and Darlene Zschech that I sang for a vocal audition in college.
The thing is the Lord is wanting me to set aside the bad experience that I had back in college over a vocal audition for the college worship team that did not go in my favor. And return to letting everything go to focus on sitting in His presence, not the past experience. Because I cannot change the past. All I can do is be in the present and look forward to the future.
The point is sitting in the presence of God and worshiping Him is important than sulking in past experiences of disappointments or hurts. They will only bring us hurt and brokenness. Whereas, sitting in the presence of God brings healing and restoration.
We will never go away from the presence of God empty-handed because He always fills us with His love. Yet, we do have to have our hands and hearts readily open to receive it. If we go before God with arrogance or anger then our hearts are not humbled before Him.
Besides, there is no other god except for God almighty. It is Him we have to answer to no one else. However, that does not give us a license to run around doing whatever we want to do. Nor does it give us a license to sulk in disappointments of the past. Yet, we can turn our hearts towards God and praise His name not just with our hearts but with our lips too.
The other point I want to make is we must not allow insecurity to become a false idol that we worship or per-say rely on with false hope of crawling out of the messes we could or do get ourselves in because of insecurity at times.
There is something new that I have learned and realized about the power of insecurity is how the enemy uses it to his advantage to intimidate us to be stuck in fear. Rather than live in the freedom of God's grace.
The thing about insecurity is it uses excuses to get us to remain in the pattern of the broken record that likes to replays in our minds. See if we do not make an effort to stop the cycle by putting a new record in our minds then insecurity will remain to hold us tight in the stronghold.
Plus, insecurity likes to keep our praise silent by trying to label us as not worthy. Insecurity will always try to intimidate us to make us feel inferior to believe a lie about us or God.
Whereas, in God's eyes we are made worthy because He has made us new. God does not see the dirty rags we were once covered in with sin. He sees the new creation made in His image. Plus, God does not make mistakes with us. That is something I have to keep reminding myself of all of the time.
Thus, we have to decide whether or not we want to be driven by the love of God or by insecurity?
The power of praise on our lips will redirect our thoughts to see how God can even turn our disappointments into divine appointments for His purpose. God turns what is meant for evil and turns it into good.
Moreover, we also need to realize about insecurity is that when we are driven by it we will run towards being self-sufficient because we either do not want to be a burden or because we believe the lie we are not enough for God cares about to cover us with His love. Yet, this is untrue God covers us unfailingly with His grace to become more like Him.
However, when we are driven by praising God our attention is taken off ourselves and put on how worthy He is. Being driven by praise is far more rewarding than being driven by insecurity and disappointment.
Praising God out loud compared to praising Him from our hearts holds a different kind of power that makes the lies of the enemy flee from us. Letting our praises ring out for others to hear not only pleases God. It encourages others to join in the praise.
There is also healing that comes from praising God out loud that heals our souls to rest in His peace. His peace heals our restless hearts that are filled with worry or doubt. The power of praise when released cannot be contained but only unleashed for all to hear.
Praising God out loud redirects our hearts to reflect the unending love of God. It also redirects our hearts to seek the favor of God rather than seeking our own selfish desires.
References:
English Standard Version Study Bible (2008) Crossway Publishing, Wheaton ILL,
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