God of All My Days

The next entry for my Blog is God of All My Days, which was written by Mark Hall and Jason Ingram. It was first released by Casting Crowns in 2016. A link to Casting Crowns singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

God of All My Days

I came to You with my heart in pieces
And found the God with healing in His hands
I turned to You, put everything behind me
And found the God who makes all things new
I looked to You, drowning in my questions
And found the God who holds all wisdom
And I trusted You and stepped out on the ocean
You caught my hand among the waves
‘Cause You’re the God of all my days

Each step I take
You make a way
And I will give You all my praise
My seasons change, You stay the same
You’re the God of all my days

I ran from You, I wandered in the shadows
And found a God who relentlessly pursues
I hid from You, haunted by my failure
And found the God whose grace still covers me
I fell on You when I was at my weakest
And found the God, the lifter of my head
And I’ve worshiped You
And felt You right beside me
You’re the reason that I sing
‘Cause You’re the God of all my days

Each step I take
You make a way
And I will give You all my praise
My seasons change, You stay the same
You’re the God of all my days

In my worry, God You are my stillness
In my searching, God You are my answers
In my blindness, God You are my vision
In my bondage, God You are my freedom
In my weakness, God You are my power
You’re the reason that I sing
‘Cause You’re the God of all my days

Each step I take
You make a way
And I will give You all my praise
My seasons change, You stay the same
You’re the God of all my days

In my blindness, God You are my vision
And in my bondage, God You are my freedom
All my days

Have you ever had one of those OOPS moments when you broke something and it seemingly shattered into a gazillion pieces? Maybe it was an antique, maybe a valuable piece of pottery, a special heirloom, or maybe just someone’s extra special coffee cup. How did you feel when this happened, knowing there was nothing you could do about what happened? This sort of thing happens to your heart as well. Maybe you feel as if life has dealt you a bad hand and no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to come out of that deep dark abyss. Perhaps you feel this way because of relationship issues, losing a loved one, family problems, job problems, or maybe addiction problems. You begin to feel as if your heart is never going to be whole again and that there will never be joy in your life again. I believe all of the above is the core of where this song begins.

The only way we can have a healed heart is to put our lives into the hands of Christ, since only he can heal our shattered heart and help us keep going. It is true we will still have those painful memories and the scars of life, but putting our hearts in his hands allows us to have hope for the future. We have a fresh start on the future as he forgives our past. He gives us something to look forward to; an eternity with him and all of our fellow believers. We all live a life of unanswered questions, we want to know why, when, how, what if…….. These questions are all part of our daily lives and we don’t have the answers, but the good news is that God knows the answers to all of our questions. Part of our daily prayers should be asking God questions about whatever is on our mind. Sometimes we get answers to some questions right away and other times God brings us peace until he is ready to answer our question. Only he has the wisdom we need and the ability to overcome our impatience, if we just completely rely on him. I realize this is easier said than done because of our human nature, but try putting all of your questions and anxieties in his hands and experience his love and his peace.

The writer describes us as being in an ocean and we are struggling just to survive. This ocean pounding with waves, represents the struggles of life and they tend to suck us down every single day. As we cry out to God, hold out our hand to God, and give him our life; he grabs our hand and pulls us out of the waves. All of a sudden our life on that daily stormy ocean shifts to life on a peaceful lake. The wavy days are still out there as we forget our way, but God will always be there to put us back on the calm waters if we just reach out to him. He is the God of all of our days and is with us every day of our life even when we are ignoring him and forgetting about him.

No matter where we are physically, mentally, or emotionally God is there with us to hold our hand and guide us down the right path. Only he knows the right path for us and only he can keep us on the path where we belong. Everyday, our lives change in some way as we experience new events that impact us. We also go through stages of life such as youth, marriage, children, grandchildren, retirement, loss of a loved one; yet God is there to help us through every phase of our life and the troubles we face each step along the way. We constantly change over the course of our life, but God never changes. We lose our focus and we lose our way, but God is always laser focused on our path and on our journey; he knows the future of each of us. As the writer states, we should praise him every step of the way.

We spend a lot of our lives just running away from God. We are ashamed because of the things we have done; we are ashamed of not praying as we should, and we feel weak if we can’t handle things on our own. There are times when we are so disappointed in ourselves and who we have become. What we fail to realize is that God has never turned his back on us and that he stays with us and keeps holding out his open arms to us; he never ever gives up on us and never holds our failures over our heads. He only asks that we love him and accept his son as our personal savior. As bad as we have been or as neglectful we have been in our relationship with God; his overwhelming love for us never changes. He is always there to help us lift our heads and look ahead to the future instead of the past, knowing that he will never leave us or forsake us. We worship God because he is the only one who never lets us down, who forgives and forgets all of our wrongdoings, and the only one who can give us eternal life. Have you ever sung a Christian song or hymn and all of sudden you can just feel the presence and love of God? I get chills just thinking about those times when I strongly sense the presence of my Lord, there is no other experience like it. Psalm 98:4-6 encourages to sing, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn, shout for joy before the Lord, the King.” A lot of us may say we can’t sing, but keep in mind that it is the Lord who gave us our voice and our talents and all of our songs are music to him.

Take a close look at the last verse of the song which gives us examples of when we need God and what he gives us as we call out to him. If you listen to the song via the link below, listen with your heart as you are reminded of what God has for us. The list of what he gives can never be captured in a Blog, a book, a library or a song. He gives us peace, the answers we seek, light in the darkness, freedom from the bondage of the dark world, and power that we cannot begin to fully comprehend. Isaiah 40:31 reminds us of what God can do in our lives if we only let him: “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

He is not just the God of our past, our good days, and our bad days; he is God of all of our days from the day we were born and for eternity.

Click to Hear Casting Crowns Sing God of All My Days

The Power of Your Love

The next entry for my Blog is The Power of Your Love by Hillsong and first released in 1992. The original lyrics were written by Geoff Bullock.  A link to Hillsong performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

The Power of Your Love

Lord I come to You
Let my heart be changed, renewed
Flowing from the grace
That I’ve found in You
Lord I’ve come to know
The weaknesses I see in me
Will be stripped away
By the power of Your love

Hold me close
Let Your love surround me
Bring me near
Draw me to Your side
And as I wait
I’ll rise up like the eagle
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love

Lord unveil my eyes
Let me see You face to face
The knowledge of Your love
As You live in me
Lord renew my mind
As Your will unfolds in my life
In living every day
By the power of Your love

Chorus

Chorus

And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love

It seems as if people have been writing books forever on the topic of how to improve their lives. There are videos, books, seminars, and more internet links than you could probably research in a lifetime; and there is probably some merit in all of these. The disappointment comes when, no matter how much we research and learn, we still have a hole in our heart, a gap in our knowledge, and realize we haven’t gotten the answer we needed. Some people look for this silver bullet their entire lives.

The answer we are seeking can only be found in Christ. This song tells us exactly what we need to do to find the answer we seek. The steps we need to take are the ones that take us to the love of Jesus. He alone can change our lives into a life of promises that will come true. He doesn’t work from the outside in but from the inside out. Our hearts become full and change as the love of Jesus indwells us. We are no longer the same and have become new people with a renewed perspective. He takes away our guilt, our heartaches, and our burdens through his grace. His grace is an all-encompassing love that forgives every mistake we have ever made or will make. The great news is he doesn’t ask anything of us but to accept his love and the salvation he is offering. All of our weaknesses are gone, we now have a strength within us that can conquer every challenge and this strength comes from the power of the love of Jesus. It is so hard to understand how he loves us so much, no matter how long we have failed him or rejected him.

All we need to do is fall into the arms of Jesus. He is always standing there with his arms open wide, just waiting for us to come to him. As his arms wrap around us, we feel a love and peace greater than we could have ever imagined. His spirit radiates love and acceptance and has a power that nothing can overwhelm. It is very challenging to put this feeling and experience into words. The writer of this song compares this feeling to soaring like an eagle. An eagle is such a majestic bird that looks so beautiful as it soars effortlessly across the sky. The power of the love of Jesus can take us to a spiritual high and give us a peace that we never thought was possible. Isaiah 40:31 tells us the power that Jesus give us: “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

As part of opening our heart and our lives to the power of the love of Jesus, we must focus on him and block out all distractions as much as possible. We need to see clearly from our heart through our eyes; we need to see Jesus in the way he wants us to see him. We will see him in others, we will sense his presence, we will feel his love; all of this is a part of truly seeing. When Jesus departed for his home in heaven, he left the Holy Spirit with those who accept him as their personal savior. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and through the spirit, we feel the love of Jesus and know that all the knowledge we need to gain peace is actually deep within us. As we continue to draw closer to Christ, we become more focused on doing his will and living the life he commanded. As Jesus told Peter in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Every morning before we crawl out of bed, we need to thank Jesus for the power of his love and the comforter he has left with us.  With him by our side, we are now ready to face the day knowing we can overcome anything the world throws at us!

Click to Hear Hillsong Sing The Power of Your Love

You Raise Me Up

The next song for my Blog was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland and was first released in 2002. A link to Josh Groban performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

You Raise Me Up

When I am down, and, oh, my soul, so weary
When troubles come, and my heart burdened me
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence
Until you come and sit awhile with me
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up to more than I can be

I don’t normally write about songs that are primarily a repetition of a chorus and have very little verse, but this song is so powerful that I decided to add it to my Blog. As you listen to the song via the link below, listen without distraction to the building power each time the chorus is repeated. I was blown away by the power of the message of the song and the delivery by Josh Groban. The song doesn’t mention God or Jesus, but the words are about things only they could do and have done.

There are many times when we are down and feel as if nothing is going right in our lives. Maybe there are problems at home, at work, with family, with friends, money, and the list seems to go on and on. On some days, it just seems as if we are facing the perfect storm of problems that just seem to drag us down. On these bad days, we feel pain and misery to our very core, to our soul. We have trouble coming out of the pit and struggle to find any joy in our life. Does any of this seem to resonate with you and how your life just seems to sometimes fall apart?

The best thing we can do is try to stop the noise and the outside influences and open ourselves to our Savior. As we start blocking out the world, we start opening our heart and senses to the Holy Spirit, which resides within each of us once we have accepted Christ as our savior. I am not saying it is easy to find this quiet time or quiet space, but we can’t communicate effectively with God unless we allow ourselves to listen to that still small voice. He is always there, so the challenge is with us to open our hearts and minds to his guidance and peace. As we start to feel his presence in our heart and soul, we also start to feel his peace. How long he sits with us is really up to us, maybe it is a minute, a few minutes, or even longer; but it is this peace that helps us to win the battles each and every day. The less we communicate with God, the more difficult and challenging the battles become.

The chorus jumps in with how God can immediately raise us above the battles we face everyday. He can make us feel as if we have been taken to the highest mountain. Stop for a minute and think about being on a tall beautiful mountain. What can you see, what can you hear, who made the mountain anyway? Psalm 121 tells us who made the mountains: I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. From my perspective, I see the beauty of the surrounding mountains and valleys, I don’t hear anything except maybe wind and birds, and I only feel peace. God can give us this feeling without leaving wherever we are, we just need to let him. God doesn’t need to actually take us to the top of a physical mountain for us to have the escape, but he showed many times in the bible that he can if necessary. Abraham, Moses, and Elijah were all called to a mountain by God. Jesus called Peter, John, and James to the mountain to witness the transfiguration.

The first line of the chorus tells how God can lead us to inner peace. The second line tells us how God can lead us through the most difficult times. Troubled waters is a good analogy for the bad days in our life. The waters, aka problems, become so scary that we do not want to even risk getting in a boat to get to escape and we certainly don’t want to get out of the boat in the midst of the storm. Jesus tried to show Peter that all it took was faith and trust in him and he could walk on the troubled waters; and Peter did walk until he took his eyes off of the savior. It is in quiet time with God when we get our strength and as soon as we break our quiet time, we are back in the midst of the storm. The longer we have our focus on God, the less time we have to spend navigating the troubled waters.

The third line of the chorus reminds me of the Footprints poem when the person asked Jesus why there was only one set of footprints in the sand when life was the most difficult; and Jesus replied that was when he carried us. This line references how strong we can be when on the shoulders of Christ. Basically we are invincible when we are relying completely on God. Yes, we will have tough days with challenging battles going on in our lives, but nothing can separate us from him, his love, and the peace only he can offer. He has guaranteed us an eternal life of peace and love once we leave this place. On the bad days, a good go-to verse for me is Isaiah 40:31 which says: but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So basically he is giving us the strength and courage we need if we just rely on him.  Every battle we face has already been won by God.

The last line of the chorus gives us the encouragement we need to take another step and take on another challenge. We can be spiritually lifted up higher than we can ever imagine. We can be stronger than we ever thought possible. We can have a peace that exceeds our highest expectations. God can raise us up to be more than we dreamed we could be and allow us to achieve far greater things than we ever envisioned.

Just stop and think about who you could really be and what you could really do if you allowed God to raise you up.

Click Here to View Josh Groban Perform You Raise Me Up