trust in you – Song Dive

You Are My Hiding Place

The next entry for my Blog is You Are My Hiding Place by Michael Ledner and first released in 1980. A link to Selah performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

You Are My Hiding Place

You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You

I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord

You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You

I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
I will trust in You

You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You

I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
I will trust in You

You are my hiding place (I will trust in You)
You always fill my heart (Let the weak say I am strong)
With songs of deliverance (In the strength of the Lord)
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You

When you are trying to escape whatever is going on in your life, where is your go to place or activity? I am talking about times when you need a diversion to get your mind off whatever is weighing you down. Maybe you dive into your go-to comfort foods, you pig out on sweets, perhaps you turn to alcohol, or maybe you just pull up the covers and stay in bed. Be honest, do any of these options last for very long? It is short term gain, but the pain and dread is still there.

As we continue along in the current COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the world, most of us are quarantined in our homes and told not to go anywhere except to purchase groceries or go for medical attention. So now we are “stuck” in our homes with our family and/or roommates twenty-four hours a day. I realize that most of us really love our families, but togetherness has its limitations, especially as weeks and months pass by in isolation. We feel as if there is no escape and our patience wears thin after a while and we feel as if we are at wits end with no place to turn. Everyone’s question is, will this pandemic ever end?

There is only one place we can hide successfully and this place is identified in Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” The other escape options I mentioned above are perhaps our first actions, but we eventually end up turning to God for the ultimate hiding place. He is the one who can give us the protection we are seeking, the love we need, and comfort that only he can bring. Not only do we get that secure feeling as he holds us, but we are surrounded with the songs of hope and deliverance, perhaps through the voices of angels. All of this gives us the peace and freedom that we have never felt before. Just think, we can get this incredible peace where we are; he comes to us. If we look to scripture again, we read that God is always there for us when we are afraid, David tells us the following in Psalm 56:3, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Here, David is acknowledging that God is his hiding place and that he knows there is no better place to put his trust than in the hands of God. Isn’t it amazing how this song has essentially taken 2 verses from scripture and almost used them verbatim in a song? Every time you sing this song, you are basically singing straight from the word of God.

One of the steps we must take to gain full advantage of what God offers us as our hiding place and his strength, is to acknowledge that we are indeed weak when it comes to facing the obstacles we face every day of our life. We must face the reality that we cannot do it alone and that we certainly can’t win the battles of this world alone. The writer of this song once again went to God’s word for the next line of the song. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul writes, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is telling us that once we understand how weak we truly are, then we are ready to accept how strong God is and what he can do for us. As long as we keep trying to do things on our own, we will remain weak.

This song is basically a repeating chorus, but it has taken scripture straight from the bible and turned it into a song. I believe this is scripture turned into a song we can sing everyday of our lives, and it will continually remind us of the love of God and what he has to offer us. Singing to God using his scriptures helps to make an even more powerful prayer. It is true that we gain eternal life beyond this earthly life by accepting God’s only son as our personal savior, but isn’t it wonderful that he gives us a place of refuge during our time on earth?

Click to Hear Selah Sing You Are My Hiding Place

We Won’t Be Shaken

The next entry for my Blog is We Won’t Be Shaken which was written by Casey Brown, Jason Roy, Jonathan Lindley Smith, and Tim Roseneau. It was first released by Building 429 in 2013. A link to Building 429 singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

We Won’t Be Shaken

This world has nothing for me
This life is not my own
I know You go before me and I am not alone
This mountain rises higher
The way seems so unclear
But I know that You go with me so I will never fear
I will trust in You

Whatever will come our way
Through fire or pouring rain
No, we won’t be shaken
No, we won’t be shaken
Whatever tomorrow brings
Together we’ll rise and sing
That we won’t be shaken
No, we won’t be shaken
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
No, we won’t be shaken

You know my every longing
You’ve heard my every prayer
You’ve held me in my weakness ’cause You are always there
So I’ll stand in full surrender
It’s Your way and not my own
My mind is set on nothing less
Than You and You alone
I will not be moved, oh

We will trust in You
We will not be moved
We will trust in You
And we won’t be shaken
We will trust in You
We will not be moved
We will trust in You
Yeah, we won’t be shaken
We will trust in You
We will not be moved
We will trust in You
Yeah, we won’t be shaken
No, we won’t be shaken

If we think about the grand picture of life as it relates to eternity, it is a pretty small blip on the radar screen. Whatever we gain today physically, emotionally, or materially pales in comparison to the eternal home God offers us. We are in a temporary earthly life that God has given us and has allowed us the option to secure our eternal home by sending his son to die for us. We are basically living in a borrowed home as we prepare for our final residence. Jesus has come and has paid the way for all of us, we just need to accept him as our savior to earn God’s promise. Putting all of this in perspective, everything we have today will be replaced by an eternity of no pain, no fear, and no sorrow.

We face challenges that seem insurmountable. We have faced wars in the past, floods, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, and Covid-19; and we have gotten scared, maybe lost our homes or loved ones. Perhaps we have reached the point of just throwing up our arms in despair since we just can’t seem to overcome the latest challenges or the culmination of events in our lives. We often reach that point when we can’t seem to find our way through the fog and over the mountains. The thing we seem to forget along the way is that we have never been and never will be alone. God knows what we are going through, he is there with us, and he is also on the other side of that mountain or challenge; he knows what it looks like on the other side of the storm we are facing. He alone holds the future and is there to hold our hand every step of the way; we just need to let him. He knows no fear since he is all powerful and we can feel his power whenever we completely lay our burdens at his feet and let him guide us along the way.

As we walk with God, no fear can overcome us; he will lead us over the mountains and through the valleys of life. With him, we can know that all things will truly work out as they should. We will not be shaken by the events in our lives or in our world because we have the assurance that we will never be alone and that this is just a temporary home. We can be like David, who faced impossible odds against Goliath. Our focus should be on God and what he wants us to do during our brief earthly life. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, we are told to stand strong and not be shaken: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” We will be able to look back across our journey in life and will be able to sing praises to a God that delivered us from all evil and led us through every challenge that was hurled at us.

It is important to note that not only is God there in our deepest darkest times, he is also aware of every need that we have. He hears and answers our prayers, and in our weakest moments of depression, frustration, and angst; he is there to lift us up. Basically, God has already told us that he will take care of us and watch over us, so the next step is really in our court. We must give our lives to him and ALL of our trust, we can’t just go part way and take some things to him and try to handle some alone. For us to be everything he wants us to be, for us to stand strong in an overwhelming world, we must completely surrender to him and trust in him alone. Through this surrender we can sense and see the true love and power that only God can wield. As the song says, our focus is on his way; not our way.

Are you standing on the solid rock of Christ that brings the strength and peace that gives you power to face the never endings battles in this world, or are you still fighting alone?

Click to Hear Building 429 Sing We Won’t Be Shaken

Trust in You – Entry #1 of 4

The next song for my Blog was written by Lauren Daigle, Michael Farren, and Paul Mabury and first released in 2015. A link to Lauren Daigle performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Trust In You

Letting go of every single dream
I lay each one down at Your feet
Every moment of my wandering
Never changes what You see
I try to win this war
I confess, my hands are weary, I need Your rest
Mighty warrior, king of the fight
No matter what I face You’re by my side
When You don’t move the mountains
I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You
Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings
There’s not a day ahead You have not seen
So let all things be my life and breath
I want what You want Lord and nothing less
When You don’t move the mountains
I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You
I will trust in You
You are my strength and comfort
You are my steady hand
You are my firm foundation
The rock on which I stand
Your ways are always higher
Your plans are always good
There’s not a place where I’ll go
You’ve not already stood
When You don’t move the mountains
I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
I will trust in You

I will begin the first entry in this Blog by analyzing the following section of the song.

Quite a step is being taken in the first line of this song. We all have dreams for our future and some of these dreams we may have had for a long time. Maybe these dreams are about families, jobs, houses, vehicles, friends, travel, sports, singing, or even changing the world. We work hard to fulfill our dreams and what we may believe to be our destiny. When I stop and think about that line, I think wow; can I really do this? Can I really give up and let go of my dreams? This is what keeps me going many days, I need a target to march towards in my life.

I don’t think the writers are suggesting we forget our dreams or walk away from our cherished aspirations, I interpret it as putting all of these in the hands of Jesus. It is hard to let go of some things, because we sometimes feel we are the only ones who can control the situation. The problem is that we only think we are in control. We need to give everything to Jesus since he is the only one who knows and controls the future. Jesus says to give our burdens to him and our dreams are somewhat of a burden if you think about it.

Everyday we push ourselves and carry the burden of our dreams and goals, but there are many days when we wonder if we can ever be where we want to be in our lives. We may have different jobs, we may have dysfunctional families, that house may be too expensive; so our dreams and our paths to those dreams get altered along the way. Sometimes it almost feels as if we are wandering aimlessly down an unknown path as we encounter one roadblock after another. We know the path we want to take to fulfill our dreams, but Jesus knows the path we need to take and what we will accomplish.

We fight our battles every day, we face the struggles of life in an ever changing never stopping world. We try to be strong for ourselves and for those who depend on us, but too many times we just get weary from the fight. We now confess that we just can’t do this anymore. It is at this point, that we finally allow Jesus to take our burdens. He is the mighty king who can conquer anybody and anything. He is the one who rose from the dead, the one who took away our sins, and the one who has prepared an eternal home for us. He has never been and never will be defeated, he alone is omnipotent. He is the warrior we need to fight and win our battles for us and is always right beside us waiting for us to let him take control of our lives so our earthly battles can be won.

Click Here to See Lauren Daigle Performing Trust In You