Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

I woke up late this morning with a mild panic in my heart. I didn’t do this. I didn’t do that. I haven’t taken care of my responsibilities. What will I do? How will it get done? Then I opened up my bible and there was this verse staring at me in the face. And He spoke to me.

“Am I not still your God?”

There is nothing like being reminded of who your God is to settle and unsteady mind. Shaken once again by my failed humanity I had to be reminded of Who and why He died for me. My failings, my weaknesses, my unfaithfulness where all part of those things He erased. His right hand still holds reign over me, that has not changed.

This is what happens to me when I start becoming self-reflective rather than turning my eyes upon Jesus.

What was it that Jesus said, “Stand, walk.” Nothing was given to the healed about doing much of anything else but live. If the life we live truly is in Christ Jesus, what He has prepared and is waiting to do is not discovered in revelation of details, they are revealed on the walk.

The conversation starts with, “Come walk with me.”

He will reveal the rest in The Way.

Genesis 35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

He has not changed in the way He is, for He is God.

Psalm 119:7a I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,

I was just speaking with my best friend last night about the power of music to lift us up and beyond that which is seen. I have been moved of late by the power of music to instill in me a place of elevation that I honestly do not deserve. Such is the power of music.

It is within my experience to have witnessed something truly sad in my fellow worshippers. So powerful is the sense of music in praise that if they do not feel the music, their praise is absent. They complain, it is too loud, it is that “new stuff”, its old and outdated, I cannot sign to that, the sound system isn’t very good, and on and on and on go the grumblings.

Praise begins in the heart.

We all love to be elevated beyond where we are with the power of music. It is emotional for sure. God has given us the gift of joy in music but is that a sincere replacement for God worship? The music is meant to be an expression of the love that already exists in the heart of the believer, not a replacement for it.

Psalm 119:7b when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

It is only after we have learned God’s righteous attributes that we can praise Him for them. It is easier to allow the music to lift us up to a place we do not belong, it is easier than seeking and learning and experiencing all Gods righteous judgments. When the music stops and you exit the door and enter back yet again into this world we live in, were is your praise then?

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Or do you need the music to set the mood?