“Show Me” so I can shine… -

So how do we let our Light shine? How do we reach out to the world around us?

I have a deeply-rooted belief that only Jesus can reach the world around me that needs Him so desperately. Maybe that sounds like such an obvious statement that there’s no point in saying it… but here’s the kicker. This means that I cannot reach the world around me. Because only He can.

How often do we think and act as though we can? As though it’s our job to reach the world?

I know… Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel… but Jesus also said something else that is significant but often overlooked.

He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) Then He said, “I do nothing on My own initiative.” (John 8:28)

How many messages have you heard that begin where Jesus said everything He did began? Do we think we are somehow more wise or able than Jesus and somehow worthy of doing things on our own initiative?

He said He did nothing except what the Father led.

How many of us start there? How many us are even able to start there?

Years ago, I realized that I could never reach the world around me in my own power. The only way I could be instrumental in reaching those around me was if they saw Jesus in me. Gracious knows that simply seeing my messy, faulty self wasn’t going to offer anyone any hope!

I also realized that I could not show the world what I did not know and understand myself. It had to be in me and a part of me before it could possibly overflow and be that light shining in the dark. Therefore, the best thing that I could do to reach the world around me was to seek to know Him better myself.

It’s a paradox, isn’t it? Yet as I get to know Him more, I will only love Him and understand Him more. I will be able to hear His voice and see and know His ways and His will. I will trust Him and be able (and willing) to obey more and more. I will become more and more transparent so that He will shine through me… and then He will reach those around me in a way that will be far more effective than any preaching or doing that I could possibly do on my own initiative.

I also believe that the more we know Him, the more He changes us so that we want to reach those around us.

Others around us will not see His love in us until WE know His love.

The closer we get to His heart, the more we can’t help feeling the love that is there for the lost around us.

.~*^*~.,.~*^*~.,.~*^*~.

There was a point in my life years ago where the desperate need of this truth hit the deepest part of my heart. I saw how much the Christian circles I was in were failing. We were not only failing to show God’s love to the world around us, but we were failing to do it among ourselves! How humbling!

And so I opened my journal and a prayer poured from my heart. The moment I finished the prayer, I knew that it was a song. I sat down at the piano, and the chords came moments later.

I sang it twice for the church I went to, and then the song sat in my songbook as years went by. Then I joined the church I am now a part of, and one day, the Lord put it on my heart to share it here in Ohio. My music pastor and friend then said she felt very strongly that we needed to add it as a congregational song. I hesitated… I didn’t feel what she did, and frankly, the bridge still felt like it was missing something that was supposed to be there. But the Lord dealt with me and reminded me that it was His song, and if He had laid this on my music pastor’s heart, then who was I to question His doings? So I gave it to her.

I wish I had words to express what happened the first time the team sang and played it! God gave the guitarist music to play. He gave the other singers harmonies. And I heard, for the very first time, what was missing in the rest of the bridge. He had waited almost 10 years to let me hear it, because it takes more than one singer, and there had been no one else to sing it with me until that moment.

The power of the song swept us all away, and it is now among the most powerful songs we sing at my church.

Last fall, I felt the Lord telling me that it was time to release this song into the world. The definition of the word “release” as He used it was simply “to let go.” He wanted me to simply quit holding onto it and let it go into the world for Him to do whatever He wants to do with it.

Yet I have struggled with knowing how. I was hoping I’d have a way to record it professionally, but no doors have opened. We tried recording it at my church, and none of them have come out well at all. We have no equipment to capture the drums or balance the voices. The sound is best when we sing it as a congregation (rather than just in practice)…yet the emotion the song brings out in me makes my voice quiver and falter, so it hardly does the song justice.

But this is all I have, and God keeps saying, “Release it. Release it. Release it.”

So here it is. This is all I have TO release.

Father God, Here am I

Boldly approaching

I Jesus’ name, with my request
Hear the cry of my heart
I am nothing without You
Lord forgive my pride
By Your grace I come asking
Show me who You are

Show me Your love that others may know You
Show me Your power, anoint my hands
Show me Your heart that I might see the world through Your eyes
Show me Your ways and the path of Your choosing
Show me the infinite wonder of You
Lord, all I want… is to know You

(repeat verse and chorus)
It’s Your power, Your grace
Your truth, Your ways.
Your love has captured my heart.
Use my hands, my feet
My mouth, every word I speak.
Make me a reflection of You…

If anyone reading this or listening to it wants the chords, they’re here. I’d love it if you’d leave a comment or email letting me know that you’re going to sing it, though.

“Show Me” so I can shine…

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