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

Glorious Day

 

The next entry for my Blog is Glorious Day by Casting Crowns and first released in 2011. The original lyrics were written in 1910 by John Wilbur Chapman and the song was titled One Day and the initial verse melody was created by Michael Bleecker and updated by Mark Hall. A link to Casting Crowns performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Glorious Day


One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed


Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day


One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He
Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me

Chorus

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again

Chorus

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my Beloved One bringing
My Savior Jesus is mine

Chorus

The song starts out with heaven rejoicing and singing the praises of Jesus. I can’t even begin to fathom what that sounds like, but can just imagine everyone’s heart bursting with joy. Up until the coming of Christ, the angels were the only ones who could see the deep dark atmosphere of sin that covered the earth, God’s creation. I am sure the angels were sad every time they looked upon this world and saw how Satan was destroying God’s perfect creation. A light began shining through this darkness, it was the birth of Jesus, God’s only son. Not only was the birth of Jesus a miracle, but being born of a virgin was another miracle. I guess that in reality, neither of these events was necessarily a miracle since God is able to do all things. We may call it a miracle, but God calls it love. God had been teaching his people through strong examples, leaders, and prophets since the time he created us; but he decided we needed a perfect example of the life we should we live as his children. What better way to do this than to send his perfect son to bring us not only his love, but to take away the darkness of sin through his love and promise of eternity. The word of God was brought to life in Jesus

The chorus puts into simple words what Jesus did for all who are willing to accept him. He lived and walked among us and showed us how much the father loved us. He died to save us from a life of hopelessness and to give us eternal life. He was buried after his death on the cross and took all of our past, current, and future sins away forever. He rose from the dead and showed us his power over the grave and that he could not be conquered by death. By rising from the dead, he showed us that he has the power to return again and he promised us he would return to take everyone to their eternal home. Yes, what a glorious day it was and will be again.

The supporters of sin, the haters of Christ, decided the way to take care of God’s example was to make him an example of their own. What better way than to have Jesus suffer the same death as so many of the other criminals; let him die on the cross with others who have committed crimes. After his beatings and humiliation, they took him to Golgotha, to die on the cross. Golgotha is on a main thoroughfare leading into Jerusalem, so everyone who entered the city through the Damascus gate would be able to see Jesus and the criminals hanging on the cross. These displays of torture and punishment helped the Romans rule through fear as people witnessed the penalty of breaking the law. Jesus had been laughed at, he had been beaten, he had been rejected, and he had been mocked; but with his dying breath he honored his commitment to die for us. As the hands that wielded the power of God were nailed to the cross and the life of Jesus faded away, our sins went with him. Every moment of his life led up to this one event, which brought us eternal life. All we have to do is accept him as our Lord and savior. Little did the Romans know that their actions were all a part of God’s glorious plan.

On the third day of being in the tomb; the world discovered that neither the cross, nor death, nor a tomb could destroy God’s son. The great stone had been rolled away from the tomb and Christ proved that he would indeed rise from the dead, just as he said. We find his promise in Matthew 20:17-19, “Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” He walked this earth again after his death and the people in the city saw him as did his followers. They could see him, touch him, and hear him speak. These same people also got to see him ascend into heaven as he returned to the father’s side; Satan had no power over the son of God.

The good news is that Jesus told us he will return and there will be a trumpet announcing his coming. We find this promise in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
The whole world will know of the return of Jesus as the skies light up with his glory. He will come to take us home to the place he has prepared for us, just as he promised in John 14:1-3. What a wonderful day that will be, as we join the family of God in our eternal home.

Click Here to Hear Casting Crowns Perform Glorious Day