The Power of a Song

It's Sunday morning worship time and I'm late.  So now I'm anxious as well as discouraged and tired.  I'm alone, so I slip quietly into the pew and loose myself in the crowd of worshipers that surround me.  The piano plays familiar cords, I relax and say a silent prayer.  I feel safe.  Slowly, the music fills the room and we sing the timeless words of an old hymn.   The words seem written for me and this moment.  God's sweet Holy Spirit washes over me as I surrender, releasing all my fears; bringing cleansing, healing, comfort, and reassurance.  It can happen without warning or maybe I'm riding in the car or at home listening to Christian  radio, when the lyrics of a song speak directly to me and my situation, bringing tears to my eyes and causing my heart to swell with pure joy.  These times like numerous other times, God used a song with its powerful words to minister to my soul.

Some of the best songs are the old hymns; the ones I learned as a child and sang all my life, like Old Rugged Cross, I will arise and go to Jesus, and Trust and Obey.  These can speak to me wherever I am, no hymn book needed, because they are forever written in my memory.  I start to sing a line or two that I remember and before long I'm singing all the verses and the refrain. 

Songs can comfort, songs can inspire, songs can convict, songs can heal, songs can encourage.  What about you?  What's your favorilte old hymn?  What song has ministered to your heart at a time when you needed to hear from God?  Hannah says that everytime she hears the David Crowder Band sing How He Loves she remembers the awesome time she had at Student Life.  It was there that she heard for the first time, the story behind the song.  Recently, Jeane shared with me the lyrics to No Matter What by Kerrie Roberts.  The message of the song is to trust God and know that all things are in his hands, no matter what.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA3MSqufJP4  Just last week Daddy was working in his garden and he felt moved to sing the old hymn, Have Faith in God and as he sang the words out loud, God's Holy Spirit spoke to his heart reassuring him that God hears his prayers and that God will answer him. 

So keep singing your songs to the Lord and let that song have it's powerful effect on your soul.  In Psalm 92:1 we read, "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy Name, Oh Most High.