Ok, I admit it... it’s an old song as far as music is reckoned. 2013 was a long time ago - a whole decade, and not quite half my lifetime.
But in my personal opinion, the music of the early 2010s was a golden era. I liked the pop of the day, and like a lot of people, the music that was popular when they were just coming into an era that they were listening to it regularly holds a special place in their hearts. So it is with me and the early 2010s. I go back and listen to songs I loved back then, and while I am occasionally amused by the more superficial subject matter of some of those songs, I know why I loved the style.
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Last weekend, I was putting together the week’s reels for Instagram and Facebook like I do every weekend. There’s a particular resource I like to use to find suitable verses (it’s literally a random Bible verse generator), and it spits out some interesting verses from time to time. This time, it popped up with Psalm 44:3: “It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring victory, but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.”
It snatched my attention, and I read it again. I’ve read Psalms all the way through three times, and have read bits and pieces of my favorite book of the Bible countless times. I’m sure I’ve read this verse a dozen times at least. But it was intermixed into what is honestly a complaint about why God has forsaken Israel by the Sons of Korah, and I never singled it out and read what it actually means. “I don’t trust anybody in ministry who doesn’t walk with a limp.” I heard a preacher say these words at a conference I attended recently. They settled like a weight on me as I digested them. It was merely different phraseology for concepts I’d heard before, but something about the way it was said – or maybe the time at which it was said – struck me particularly acutely.
The preacher was referring to the story of Jacob in Genesis 32 when this patriarch is given the name Israel after he wrestles with God. God made this man limp from that day forward. How many of us have asked God to make us holy? What about asking Him to help you grow in a certain gift or in character? Ever asked Him something that seemed benign or even holy at the time, and you later kind of regretted it because He took it seriously?
I have. I like to call those types of prayers “dangerous prayers.” I don’t mean dangerous in the sense of harmful, just dangerous in the sense of uncomfortable - i.e., prayers we might not have prayed if we had realized what God was going to do as a result. Someone once told me to shine the light of Jesus. I remember it like it was yesterday - I must have been eight or nine, and some unbelieving coworkers of my dad’s were coming to share dinner with us. It was the first time I ever thought about being intentional about shining God’s light to be a beacon of the way to Jesus. The idea had simply never occurred to me.
Most of my childhood was spent in a reasonably sheltered environment. While I certainly came across nonbelievers in my life, and I prayed for those people who didn’t know Christ in my family, I didn’t think about being the light of Jesus to them. I was simply living my life, being my crazy self without much consideration that I was a little bright shining star for Jesus. |
Sarah GraceHi! I'm Sarah Grace, and I'm so glad you stopped by the Wings of Heaven blog! You can find short posts for easy reading or longer, more in-depth musings! I hope you're blessed! Archives
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