Believing what you’re singing

So many times in church I have just sung the songs that were being sung because that is what everyone else was doing.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe the songs. I just didn’t always think about the meaning of what I was doing.  It just can become something that you do at the beginning and end of the service.  When I do think about the words I can have an amazing time of singing praises to God who deserves our praise.  However, this should be at all times not just part of the time.  I think if I am not singing for the glory of God I should just not be singing at all.  Also, we need to be careful about what we are communicating to God. Older hymns tend to talk about the greatness of God and who He is. In the songs we sing today, the writers of the songs tend to make a lot of promises or bold statements to God within their songs.  I think many people are making a big mistake by just singing along. I find this with a lot of Hillsong’s songs especially. Such as  “Lead me to the Cross” Do we know what that means??? Do we mean it??  As a Christian, we should mean it BUT have we thought it through…about what we are committing to?  Essentially I think this song is saying this to God: “God feel free to do whatever you want with me for the sake of the Gospel even it means we must die as Jesus died.”  It’s a serious commitment.  Something we should commit to but through prayer and serious thought.  Another song that really struck me was another Hillsong song that has people singing enthusiastically “Take, take, take it all! Take, take, take it all!”  I listened to this song a lot when I was in Atlanta caring for my brother after he became paralyzed.  It made me think. Did I really understand what it meant to have everything taken for the sake of Christ?  I couldn’t even understand why God took my brother’s ability to walk.  I can’t even imagine the scene of God taking everything away.  I do trust in God and do believe that God could “take it all” (all of this world) and I would still love him because he is everything we need.  I just think we need to be careful to what we are saying and singing to an all-powerful all-knowing God of the universe.

More recent example if you fast-forward to now as I have just arrived in Singapore. I am having a similar experience with the song “More than enough”.  It goes “All of you is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need. You satisfy me with your love. In all I have in you is more than enough.”  I cried at church before I left while singing this.  Did I believe these words?  God decided to move me out of the US and give me a completely new context do I believe that God is more than enough? For EVERY thirst? That God can satisfy me with HIS love?  And that God is not just enough or good enough but that God is MORE than enough?  The answer is yes HE is or else I would not be in Asia right now.  Pray that He would continue to remind me of His truth and His love that is more than enough for me and He is more than enough for the billions in Asia! 

I will do the same for you.