Empowered!

“Could you just sit still and behave?” were the words out of my mouth as I was hurriedly trying to get ready to leave the house for women’s Bible Study one morning? However, with three small daughters dancing around my feet it was becoming obvious that I was going to be late. Finally, out of frustration I took Amy, my youngest daughter at the time, and placed her on the vanity and told her she would have to sit still until I was ready. She squirmed and wiggled, and attempted to get into my makeup, which brought more rebuke on my part. Excitedly, she asked in her sweet little voice, “Well can I at least sing a song?” My reply was something to the extent, “Well of course you can sing, if you just sit still!” To that she began to sing, “I’m so glad my mommy loves Jesus, so she won’t be cranky!”
Ouch! Here I was trying to leave to go study the Word of God, and my witness to my children was anything but an example of Christ. Yet, my sweet little child gave witness that when people love the Lord they act like they love the Lord! At the age of four she understood that when you have Jesus you look differently, you act differently, and you speak differently. That reminder caused this mommy to soften and realize that the important thing for the morning was not to be on time for a Bible study but to model a life that reflected my love for the Author of the Book.

One thing I have learned through the years as a wife, mother of four, grandmother of eleven, and an observer of many, is that our love leaks. We start out at the alter saying, “I will love you for better or worse,” and then the worse comes and we get angry, allowing emotional walls to build up and separate us. We have friendships that are priceless, and then difficult situations arise and our connections slowly fade. The same can be true of our love relationship with God. We have seasons where we feel close to Him, and then suddenly we find ourselves feeling estranged and distant. This is what happened to the Israelites while they were in exile: they found themselves in a pagan nation, no longer exposed to the worship of their God, and their hearts grew cold toward Him. Nehemiah wanted to remind the people who God is and that His love is everlasting. He did this by bringing songs of praise back into the city.

Praising God is expressing our thanks and honor to Him. If we are going to give someone praise, we must remember who they are and what they have done for us. The Book of Psalms is a collection of beautiful poetry. The Hebrew title of the book translates to “Praises.” The word “psalm” means “songs.” There are over one hundred fifty songs recorded that were used in the Jewish worship services, accompanied by lyres, flutes, horns and cymbals. Each of these songs displays the character of God and the testimony of what He has accomplished for His people. Read Psalm 136:1-26.

The Israelites were continually forgetting God’s character and all He did for them. Each line in Psalm 136 is a reminder of all His great deeds and revealed character. With each verse of the song the people are reminded of who their God is: Creator, Deliverer, Savior, Protector, and Guide. The repetitiveness of the line, “His faithful love endures forever” is the psalmist’s way of reminding the people of God’s faithful and eternal love, no matter how far they had strayed in their love relationship with Him. I imagine that this song did for the Israelites what my sweet daughter’s song did for me, snapping them back to the reality that they were God’s children and they needed to acknowledge Him by praising Him for all His great deeds. Not only was their spiritual condition dependent upon them being keepers of praise, but the future generations’ spiritual condition was dependent upon it as well.

Reflect and Respond

It has been thirty-three years since the day my daughter sang me her song, recently her sweet four-year-old daughter was playing at my home, singing the chorus of a popular Contemporary Christian song:

God is on the Move “
“I know - I know- God is on the move, on the move Hallelujah
God is on the move in many mighty ways
God is on the move, on the move Hallelujah
God is on the move on the move today”

What joy this brought to my heart as I rejoiced in realizing the praises of my daughter’s heart did not stop as a child, but have continued and, now she has passed those praises on to my grandchildren. It is our calling to tell the stories of what our God has done; not only the stories of the Bible, but what has He personally done for us. The generation that follows will never know if we don’t tell them.