I’ve been pretty quiet these last few months for various reasons. One repeating theme, however, is that every time I play and sing “Shout to the Lord,” the Lord speaks to me…. challenging me… questioning me.
He asked me what “the promise I have in You” really is. The Bible is full of promises… but what one promise really is above absolutely everything else that earth or life could offer? I finally came to the conclusion that it what John mentions in John 1:16:
16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
This is the same thing that Paul is praying about for the Ephesian church:
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
This promise – that it is possible for Christ Jesus to dwell in us, which enables us to be filled with the fullness of God – is the fullness – the foundation and the channel and the way and the sum total and at the same time the one thing that absolutely nothing else compares to.
Last week, God challenged me when I sang this line:
I sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Usually when I sing that line, I think of the stars and galaxies, of clouds and mountains and flowers and snowflakes, of things that God has done in my life and the lives of others.
But this time, He said, “Will you sing for joy over what you are still waiting for Me to do? That difficult situation that you cannot imagine a good resolution to… do you trust Me enough? Do you trust that I am wise enough and capable enough and loving enough to sing for joy now over what I am going to do… even though You don’t know what I’m going to do?”