mercy – Song Dive

Goodness of God

The next entry for my Blog is Goodness of God, which was written by Ben Fielding, Brian Johnson, Edward Martin Cash, Jason Ingram, and Jenn Johnson. It was first released January 4, 2019. A link to CeCe Winans singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

I love You, Lord
For Your mercy never fails me
All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

‘Cause all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest night You are close like no other
I’ve known You as a Father
I’ve known You as a Friend
And I have lived in the goodness of God, yeah

‘Cause all my life You have been faithful, oh yes You have
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me

With my life laid down, I surrendered now
I give You everything, oh Lord
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
With my life laid down, I surrendered now
I give You everything
Your goodness is running after, it keeps running after meAnd all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God
I’m gonna sing

All my life You have been faithful
(All of my life You’ve been faithful)
All my life You have been so, so good
(So good with every breath)
every breath that I am able
(Every breath I’m able)
I will sing (I’m gonna sing)
Of the goodness (of the goodness of God, yes I am)
I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God
Oh, I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God

I would like for you to stop for a minute and think about the very first line in this song, “I love you Lord.” Have you really taken time to tell God how much you love him and thank him for all he has done for you, your family, and your friends? I strongly believe most of us spend a lot more time asking things of God as opposed to thanking him for every blessing of every day. I would like for you to take some time right now to think about why you love someone and make sure that God gets that same amount love if not more.

Love is such a powerful word, but we don’t always stop to think about what it means. This song does a great job telling us what God is doing every day in our lives and how he runs after us because he loves us and never gives up on us. Wherever we go, he is there with us. Whenever we try to run from him, he runs beside us. Whenever we try to hide, he finds us. Whenever we feel like we cannot fight any longer and fall to our knees in despair, he is there to join us in the battles of life. When we are lonely and feel unloved, his arms are wrapped around us. As you think about these things and remember how he kept you safe, how can you not love God? God’s mercy, his unending forgiveness, is there to bring us peace; regardless of the mistakes we have made in our lives or the times we have ignored him.

Not only is God with us at all times, his hand is always extended to us so we never have to walk alone, no matter the challenges we are facing. It doesn’t matter where we are, where we have been, or where we are going; his love surrounds us. Think about all of the challenges in life you have faced. Now, think about how you survived those challenges. You survived because God was there with you the entire time and had his arms wrapped around you, you just didn’t realize it. In our greatest moments of hopelessness, despair, and darkness; God was always there to lead us back into the light. The song writers state how they love the voice of God. Some may say I have never heard the voice of God. Is his voice a booming sound that wakes us up and brings us back to reality? In our times of despair, we may feel as if we need a loud voice to bring us out of our despair. The reality is that if we have accepted God’s son Jesus as our personal savior, the holy spirit dwells within us and is our internal communication link with God, we find this in the book of John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” All we have to do is open our hearts and minds to God and we will be able to hear that still small voice. It is that voice that helps to calm the storms of life we face, and bring us an inner peace as we fight our battles. The Holy Spirit is with us from the day we accept Jesus until the day our life on earth is no more. This is what the goodness of God is all about, he loves us unconditionally and sees no fault in any of us who have accepted him and his son.

I love the line in the song, “your goodness is running after, it’s running after me.” Most of us probably have the tendency to believe that we have to reach out to God and get his attention before he can help us. The reality is he is trying to get our attention to keep us out of the situations we get into, but we tend to ignore him until we are in complete desperation. In effect, he is trying to head off the issues ahead of us, but we don’t take the time to ask for or listen to his guidance. We seem to prefer to proceed with doing things we shouldn’t do instead of listening to that still small voice that is reaching out to us. He is always faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to him. In some ways it is like parenting. As a parent, I want to watch out for my children and try to keep them out of trouble, but there is only so much I can do when my children don’t listen. Even when my children disobey me and choose their own paths, I still love them as much as I always have. We find commitments of God’s eternal faithfulness to us throughout the bible and here are just a couple of the many passages of scripture. Psalm 108:4 “For Your mercy is great above the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” Psalm 117:2 “For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.”

Since God has been there with us every step of every day, isn’t it time for us to praise him with every breath we take and time to sing of his mercy and his grace? It is time to stop running away from God, it is time to fall into the security of his promises and his love. Are you one of the people who have continued to run from God? If so, isn’t it time for you to quit running away and accept his son as your savior?

Select to hear CeCe Winans Sing the Goodness of God

Man on the Middle Cross

The next entry for my Blog is Man on the Middle Cross, which was written by AJ Pruis, Matt Jenkins, Matthew West, and Rhett Walker. It was first released July 21, 2023. A link to Rhett Walker singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Heard the Preacher talking about three wood crosses
Up on a hill everyone to see
Two sinners on the outside couldn’t save themselves if they tried
All I could think is man that sounds like me

I’ve been the one on the left full of guilt and regret
Long gone on the wrong side of living
I’ve been the one on the right always looking for a fight thinking I could never be forgiving
I’m standing here today
Overwhelmed by grace cause I know who paid my cost
Thank God
for the man on the middle cross

He didn’t have to do it But for me it went thru it
A love like that I’ll never understand
Lord knows I don’t deserve it And I know I couldn’t earn it
Mercy rained down on this desperate man

The cross is where he went
But that ain’t where he stayed
He brought me back to life when He rose up out of that grave
Someday I’ll stand before him
See Jesus face to face
I’ll worship and adore him
For a life forever changed

Perhaps many of you reading this blog were not aware of the crosses that are spoken of in Christian religions, maybe some of you know about the cross Jesus died upon, and some of you may be familiar with the three crosses this song talks about. The bible does indeed tell us there were three crosses together, with Jesus being on the center cross and felons on the other two crosses. We find this in the book of Luke 23:33, “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.” The mount where the crucifixion occurred was call Golgotha, which translates into the word skull from the Aramaic language. As the preacher was delivering the message that the song writer heard, maybe it was the first time the writer had really listened to the scripture about the crosses. So many times, we may be the same way, the message may be one we have been aware of for years, but we never allowed it to resonate in our life. I believe most people who are aware of Jesus are probably aware that he died on a cross, but have little awareness of the fact that two criminals were also crucified on either side of him. The good news is that Jesus came back to life after his death on the cross, but the two sinners on either side of him had no chance of returning to life on this earth,

Obviously, none of us are perfect and most, if not all of us, struggle to be the best person we can be every single day in our life. The writer of the song assigns backgrounds to each of the two people on either side of Jesus, the purpose is so he can help show all of us how we may fit into the scenario. How many times have you felt guilty about something? Maybe your guilt is from long ago or maybe it is from a few hours ago; but how does it make you feel inside? Sometimes I sit and reflect on the past and think about the things I should not have done and the people I may have hurt. As I do this reflection, I think it was very insensitive of me to say what I said or act the way I did. This is when we are similar to the person hanging on the cross on the left. We realize where we have failed in our life and finally recognize that the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and savior is the only way to gain eternal life. We have come to the realization that we can never gain eternal life until we give our soul to Jesus.

Unfortunately, some of us are similar to the man on the other cross. We are bitter, vindictive, and only care about ourselves. In common vernacular, these types of people are recognized as hardened criminals who are unwilling to ever change. We go about our lives without even thinking about who we hurt. The hurt we inflict may be emotional, violent, physical, or destructive. The goal is to gain whatever we can without even considering the damage we cause along the way. We form the opinion that because we believe that no one loves us or cares for us anyway, why should be act any different. Our most secure prisons are most likely filled with people of this mentality. There are also many people roaming the streets today who have the same mindset of if I want it, I will take it and are willing to harm anyone who gets in their way. This is perhaps the mindset of the man on the cross on the other side of Jesus. We find the scripture about the two criminals in the book of Luke 23:39-43, “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Regardless of which camp of people we fall into, God views us all as disobedient to him. He doesn’t evaluate us based on the wrongs/sins we have committed; he just knows that we have not accepted his son as our savior. He also knows we are walking through a world that we can’t control and that we feel all alone with no hope. All of us are on the first cross I mentioned above at all times and some of us cross over to the other cross if we wander too far away from where we should be. This takes us to the middle cross, where Jesus, the son of God, was hanging. He died on that cross and when he died that day, he gave us grace. Grace basically means that if we accept him as the son of God and his sacrifice for us, then all of the wrongs we have committed in our past and all of the wrongs we will commit in the future have been forgiven. God then views us as a perfect being and no longer sees the blemishes we gathered over a lifetime. This is basically what transpired with the criminal the writer depicted as being on the left side of the three crosses. It doesn’t mean we will be perfect in our actions and thoughts every day, but it does mean that we have an eternal life in front of us as we traverse the way to heaven.

Just imagine someone loving you so much that they would lay down their life for you. I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like to finally see Jesus face to face and worship him and thank him for dying for me and coming back to life just to help me realize that he truly is the son of God. The cross couldn’t kill his spirit, the tomb could not contain his body, and nothing on earth could stop him from walking among his disciples three days after he came out of that tomb.

Which of the people on the cross would you most likely be if you were on Golgotha that fateful day? Would you be the one who believed in Christ or the one who rejected him? Now is probably a good time to do a self-assessment to determine the priorities in your life and where Christ fits. We will all face death one day, we just don’t know when. The good news is that we can decide today on which cross we would have hung long ago.

Click to Hear Rhett Walker Sing Man On The Middle Cross

Glorious Day

The next entry for my Blog is Glorious Day, which was written by Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Kristian Stanfill, and Sean Curran. It was first released 2017. A link to Passion singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Glorious Day

I was buried beneath my shame
Who could carry that kind of weight?
It was my tomb
‘Til I met You

I was breathing, but not alive
All my failures I tried to hide
It was my tomb
‘Til I met You

You called my name
Then I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

Now Your mercy has saved my soul
Now Your freedom is all that I know
The old made new
Jesus, when I met You, whoa, what a day

When you called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
Then I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

I needed rescue
My sin was heavy
But chains break at the weight of Your glory
I needed shelter
I was an orphan
But You call me a citizen of Heaven
When I was broken
You were my healing
Now Your love is the air that I’m breathing
I have a future
My eyes are open

‘Cause when you called my name
I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed and ashamed of some of the things you have done? Maybe you hurt a friend or a loved one, perhaps they forgave you; but the shame of the hurt you caused just seems to stay with you. Perhaps you have a storied past due your poor decisions or involvement in activities you knew were wrong. Some of these past actions may cross your mind as you first wake up and start your day; you think about what you did to others as well as what you have done to yourself. Where can you run, hide, and just escape your past? This entire scenario has become your tomb. We know from the bible that Christ was in a tomb with a very large stone rolled across the opening so that no one could get in and it was thought he couldn’t get out especially with two Roman guards standing outside the tomb. Maybe your guilt and your shame has become just like the tomb Christ was in. One of the big differences is that Christ was dead and placed in his tomb, but you are alive and living in your own self-created tomb. Everything that has happened to put you in this situation was caused by your actions. Take a few minutes and think about that analogy. Yours is a self-created tomb, and although you are breathing, you are not really alive; you are mentally locked up and have no way to move that massive stone in front of your tomb. Then, something happened that changed your whole world, the stone began to roll away.

The something that happened is that you heard about the man called Jesus, the son of God. You heard about how he forgave sins and gave people new life; even those locked up in their own self-made tombs. Here are the words Jesus said about the burdens we carry that led us into our tomb, it is from Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Once you have accepted Jesus as your personal savior, he is there to take away your burdens. Not only does he take them away, he forgives you from every wrong you have committed your entire life. Once this happened, you ran out of your tomb and were able to face the world again. You run out of that tomb as fast as you can into the waiting arms of Jesus. You no longer have the darkness in your soul that light could never penetrate. Jesus had been there all of the time, calling your name, and you finally heard him. It is truly a glorious day as you feel the joy that only he can bring.

God could have let all of us live without the hope of salvation or spending eternity with him, but he loved us enough to send his only son to die for all of our wrongdoings. Even as he knew his son was dying on the cross, he still loved us and was willing to forgive us for everything we had done wrong in our lives, as well as any transgressions we would commit in the future. This is what mercy is all about. He gave his only son to die so that we could have eternal life with him. Jesus gave his physical life for us and all God asks of us is that we accept this offering of love so that we can spend eternity with him. There is no greater gift than the gift of eternal life. As the song says, we are now a brand-new person with a fresh start once we have Jesus. We walk out of a world of despair into a world of hope and a life with a future. I think the phrase in the song “whoa, what a day”, is such a simple way to describe what happens when Jesus enters our life; it is hard to put the emotion into words.

The first step in finding the light and love of Jesus is recognizing that you indeed need to be rescued; he can’t rescue us if we are not ready to be rescued. The heavy chains of our sinful past get heavier and heavier every passing day, and we reach what we believe is the point of no return in our lives. The chains have become too heavy to bear and we fall into a sense of hopelessness and despair. We finally reach out to Jesus and he frees us from our bondage and brings us into the light of his glory. Maybe we felt as if we were alone during our misery and that we had no home and no family. Jesus takes us in as part of his family and he introduces us to our eternal heavenly father. He has healed our broken spirit, he has brought light into our world again, and you feel his love wrapped around you. In addition to all of these amazing things he has done, he makes a promise/commitment to us, we find this in John 14:1-4; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

As you stop and reflect on all of the above, I hope you have taken the opportunity to run out of that grave you have been living in and that you have begun rejoicing in that Glorious Day. It is never too late.

Click to Hear Passion Sing Glorious Day

Praise You in This Storm

The next entry for my Blog is Praise You in This Storm, which was written by Bernie Herms and John Mark Hall. It was first released in August 30, 2005. A link to the Casting Crowns singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Praise You in This Storm

I was sure by now
God, You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say, “Amen” and it’s still raining

Well, as the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I’ll raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

And I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
And raised me up again
But my strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can’t find You?

But as the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I’ll raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of Heaven and Earth

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?

And I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

And though my heart is torn (though my heart is torn)
I’ll praise You in this storm (praise You in this storm)

I don’t know about you, but I love to sit on my porch and watch a thunderstorm roll in. The thunder and the rain seem to bring a peace to my soul and also a new shade of green and color to all of the flowers and trees around me. Everything looks so clean and fresh once the storm passes. Unfortunately, most of us probably get caught up in the storms of life, which are not quite so pleasant. The lightning, the pouring rain, and rumbling thunder seem to come into our lives for a season and disrupt our joy and happiness. The time gradually comes when we are in the center of our storm and are not sure how much longer we can withstand the darkness that comes with the storm. This song provides a good description of what we all endure, but it also tells us that God hasn’t deserted us; he is in the midst of the storm with us and is there to give us strength, hope, and comfort as the world crashes down around us. Sometimes there are trials we have to face and challenges we have to overcome, but we must keep our faith in God. We anxiously await him to step in and stop the storm, but there are things we have to sometimes endure in life that help us to become the people God wants us to be. What is important is that we realize that God is always there and through it all, we must keep our eyes on God and thank for him for being with us during these troublesome storms. As we struggle to keep our focus on God, we suddenly hear that quiet voice that tells us we are not alone. He is there to remind us that no matter what we may have done to be in this storm; his mercy and his love will surround us. We should thank God as we feel his presence and feel his arms wrap around us.

The chorus reminds us to praise God through the stormy days and the sunny days of our life. God is the only being who can be with us wherever we go. He knows every tear we have shed because he holds those tears in his hand, to show his love for us. Although we may feel alone and deserted by everyone we know and our heart is breaking; God has never left us, nor will he. So, no matter the power and darkness of the storm, he is there and should be praised for never leaving our side.

Have you ever been outside in a powerful wind and tried to walk into that wind? You sort of struggle along just to get to your destination, but it takes away all of your energy. We wonder if we can even make it to our destination. As we fight through the headwinds in life, God is there to help pull us along and to pick us up when we stumble and cry out. We can’t see God, but he is there even if we can’t see him. As our strength gives way and the battle of life continues, he is there to carry us when we can no longer put one foot in front of another. One of the greatest men in the Christian bible, David, often faced overwhelming challenges in his life. He wrote this in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” This should be a great encouragement for all of us. This is a promise that applies to all of those who believe in God and have accepted his son as their personal savior. Perhaps the even better news is that God never sleeps and is with us every hour of every day.

As we are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” He alone deserves our faith, love, and trust.

Are you in the midst of a storm today and just struggling to find your way? If so, have you reached out to the only one who can help you find light in your life again?

Click to Hear Casting Crowns Sing Praise You in this Storm

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

The next entry for my Blog is Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), which was written by Giglio Louie. It was first released in 2006. A link to the Chris Tomlin singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog. The original version of Amazing Grace was written by John Newton in 1772.

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine, will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Think of a word or phrase that carries the most powerful impact on someone’s life. I know this might be a challenging request, since there are so many great words and phrases that positively impact us in a special or powerful way. The title of this song doesn’t necessarily stand out as the answer to my request, but when you look at the true meaning of grace; you will hopefully agree that this is one of the most powerful songs ever written. I believe that, deep inside, we all want to be better people. We want to be better for ourselves as well as for others. We want to be liked, loved, and embraced as we greet other people; but what happens when we do things wrong and people can’t seem to get past our mistakes and errors in judgement? Depending on what we may have said or what we have done, people will not let us into or back into their lives nor will they forgive or forget what we have done. We put ourselves in a situation where we live in regret and then start trying to avoid others. We are seemingly stuck with our past and this guilt becomes the chains that hold us back. We want to be free, but are unsure of how to break through our bondage and move forward in our lives.

Now, let’s look at the title of this song, the word to focus on is grace. In looking at this through the lens of Christianity, grace is defined as the unmerited favor of God. More simply put, it is a free gift of forgiveness and mercy regardless of what we have done in our lives. All God asks of us is to accept his son Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we then receive God’s forgiveness for every mistake we have made in our lives; past, present, and future. God’s grace is immediate. No matter what we have done in our life, God is willing to forgive us. People may or may not forgive our flaws, but God is the one who controls our eternity and the one who should be the most important being in our lives. We all make mistakes, some big and some small, and we may not be leading a good life. Maybe we got off track with our lives a long time ago and perhaps we consider ourselves as being bad or even wretched, but he loves us anyway and is willing to wrap his arms around even the most evil among us; all he asks is to put our future in his hands. As we accept God, we start seeing the life he wants us to lead and the person he wants us to become. We are no longer oblivious to our own wrongs and the wrongs of others around us. God instills in us the desire to be better and to see what needs to change in our lives. As we feel his love and his strength, we no longer have the same fear regarding what lies ahead in our lives because we know he is there to lead us, to guide us, to love us, and to pick us up when we fall.

As the chorus tells us, we have been set free from our past and present and now have hope for our future. We are no longer encumbered by the invisible chains that have held us back from who we can be. We can now live, love, and dream knowing that we will never be alone again and that we have a guaranteed eternal home. God sent his only son to die on the cross for us, so we could have the bondage of our past replaced by the promises of God! It is amazing to me that God gave up his son so each of us could have an eternal life with him. Jesus paid the price for us with his life, the ultimate sacrifice. God’s mercy wiped the slate clean of all wrongdoings we have had in our lives and has made us a new creation, with his promise of never-ending love. It may be a while before people we know overlook our past, but in God’s eyes we have no past, only a future.

God promises eternity for us and that we can have a rewarding life. It doesn’t mean we will have a perfect life, but we can have a life filled with hope knowing that we ultimately have an eternal heavenly home. In the book of John 14:1-3, we find this promise given by Jesus as he prepared to die on the cross for us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

One day this world, as we know it, will be no more, the writer describes it as the earth melting away like snow. The bible, in the book of Revelation, also tells us that the world will be replaced by a new world. The good news is that God has already reserved our space in heaven, once we have accepted his son as our personal savior. This is grace: the gift of eternal life.

Click to Hear Chris Tomlin Sing Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Fear is a Liar

The next entry for my Blog is Fear is a Liar, which was written by Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, and Zach Williams. It was first released January 19, 2018. A link to the Zach Williams singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Fear is a Liar

When he told you you’re not good enough
When he told you you’re not right
When he told you you’re not strong enough
To put up a good fight
When he told you you’re not worthy
When he told you you’re not loved
When he told you you’re not beautiful
That you’ll never be enough

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear, he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

When he told you were troubled
You’ll forever be alone
When he told you Cause should run away
You’ll never find a home
When he told you you were dirty
And you should be ashamed
When he told you you could be the one
That grace could never change

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear, he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, fear he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

‘Cause fear he is a liar

Do you ever feel as if you are in a deep dark hole with no way out? It seems as if there is some sort of roadblock in every direction. Eventually, we tend to lose our confidence and sometimes withdraw into ourselves and keep everyone else out of our lives. I believe this song does a good job of describing this situation. It is as if there is someone else inside our mind or body who is always telling us that we will never succeed in anything we do, we are just a total failure at everything. Are there times when you have felt as if you are were not good enough? Maybe you felt as if you were not good enough for someone else to love and are afraid to express your feelings to that special someone. This special person fell in love with someone else and you never even told them how you felt about them because you were afraid of rejection or ridicule. Everywhere we turn, we feel rejected and become afraid in every aspect of our lives. We are not as intelligent as others, we are not as beautiful as others, we begin to wonder why anyone would fall in love with us since we are not worthy of love and respect. Wow, this is really depressing and may not seem real but it really happens to many people. Maybe it leads to a life filled with “what ifs” or even worse, results in suicide.

Now that have I painted a gloomy picture; it is time to identify where these feelings come from; they are the results of fear. Satan, the devil, the evil one; is constantly whispering in our ear and getting into our heads. Satan’s goal is to disrupt and destroy our lives. The bible in 1 Peter 5:8 says, “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” He can stop us dead in our tracks, he can destroy our confidence, and take away our hopes and dreams. The bad news is that Satan and his minions are always after us and lie to us about who we are. The more we listen to him, the deeper into the abyss we fall. As the chorus tells us, we need to take this fear of gloom and doom that he whispers in our ear and kick him out of our lives. He is a liar, a cheat, and a failure. He is the one that was not good enough to defeat the almighty God in the battle for heaven and was banished to this earth. All of these bad things you are thinking about yourself are a direct result of trusting in these voices as opposed to turning your heart and mind over to God.

The first verse depicts Satan, via fear, attacking our personal qualities. The next verse is how Satan tries to negate the possible actions of God in our lives. Not only does our view of our own self-image affect us emotionally, but it also impacts how we interact with other people. Since we are so afraid to engage with others due to our lack of confidence and self-esteem and fear of rejection, we resign ourselves to the feeling that we will always be alone and lonely. We wish we could run away from it all, but where can we run when there is no one who is willing to hold us and bring us peace? Our lives are ruined and worthless and we are convinced that we are sentenced to a life of shame and sadness. The even worse news is that we have the feeling there is absolutely nothing that even God can do for us; we are too far gone to be brought back to the light of hope.

The writers do a good job depicting how much impact fear and Satan have on our lives and some of you may believe this is your life today. The good news is that although we all may have many of the feelings portrayed in this song, we have a way out. The path from this darkness to the bright and shining light is accepting Jesus, the son of God, as your personal savior. God sent his son to die for all of us and to forgive all of the wrongs in our lives and guarantee us an eternal home with him. The song references grace; in the Christian bible, grace is defined as getting a gift we don’t deserve. A word also used frequently with the word grace is the word mercy. Mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve. When Jesus died for us, God essentially forgave us for everything we have ever done wrong and there will be no punishment from him. The only requirement is you must accept his son Jesus as your own personal savior. We are told this in the book of John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” As you take this step, all of the wrongs in your life are forgiven by God and you have a father who loves you. Yes, we will still have our moments where we do things we shouldn’t, but he is always with us to offer us encouragement and forgiveness and to get us back on the right path.

As you get closer to God and farther away from the great deceiver, your life begins to change. You start to feel a love and comfort you have never felt before. Perhaps the greatest thing is the feeling that you are never alone. God made you as one of his creations and he made each of us as individuals. He loves us even more than we can even imagine. There is an old hymn, “In the Garden”, that talks about how God walks with us and talks with us and reminds us of how we belong to him. It is a song that can bring joy to your heart and reinforces the fact that we are never alone. As you realize that God is part of your life and that his love can never be taken away, you have a new hope in your life. It is almost as if you are able to see that bright sunshine on your face whenever you think of him. Every time you see a rainbow, you will remember that God gave us the rainbow as a promise of his love. If you are someone who has been losing the battle to the devil and now realize you have God’s power over him; go out and face your new world. A world filled with love, hope, friendship, and a bright new future. You will no longer be afraid to open your heart to friends, loved ones, that special someone, and you might start looking at new adventures in your life. If you have some time available, listen to the song I mentioned above or even take a look at my Blog entry for the song.

The devil and fear are absolutely the best liars, but God is love and offers us eternity and is with always with us. The book of Joshua 1:9 reminds us of God’s promise of faithfulness, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Click to Hear Zach Williams Sing Fear is a Liar

Tag: mercy