Weekend Words

From Be Still and Know...

"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19)

Have you experienced a day when you had the "blues"?  You seemed weighed down with the cares of life?  Suddenly you heard someone singing or whistling and your spirits were lifted.  What therapy music is!

When Jesus Christ enters a heart, along with a new relationship comes a new song.  It may not be an outward song, but it is a song of joy that comes from the heart.  Even though we may not be able to sing aloud, the inward song of the heart will lift our spirits and the melody of it will catch the ear of the listening God.

The hearts of the early Christians were full of song because the presence of the Saviour was so real in their lives.  Paul and Silas were able to sing this song when in prison.  "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and SANG PRAISES unto God: and the prisoners heard them" (Acts 16:25).

We are to make melody to the LORD.  This turns the eyes of our heart to Him.  One of the blessings of the Christian faith is that it enables Christians to sing under all circumstances.  Our song of the heart comes from the confidence we have of knowing God is adequate in spite of outward circumstances and He is in control regardless of our situation.

Every Christian should have a song of joy overflowing from the heart as a fountain of joy.

Are you a member of the heavenly "singing company"?  Is your heart singing and making melody to the Lord?  If not, begin singing even though you may not feel like it.  Soon His song will well up and overflow from your life, blessing those about you.  "O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise; the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace."

"Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, offering praise with voices [and instruments], making melody with ALL your HEART to the LORD" (Ephesians 5:19, Amplified).

From Behold the Lilies...

"Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." - Matthew 6:34

One time I was sharing with a friend my concerns about a situation I was facing.  I was afraid that real problems would develop from that situation.  She merely smiled and said, "Just take one day at a time."  What good advice!  I quickly discovered that I could cope with the situation - today.  What happened with the problems I felt could develop in the future?  The Lord took care of the situation and the potential problems, and proved there was no need for me to worry.

All the challenges and responsibilities of life are much easier to handle one day at a time.  After all, today is God's gift to us.  He has not yet given us tomorrow, and if He does, He will see to it that it will be a good gift.  So, let's thank the Lord for today and trust Him for tomorrow.

I owe the Lord a morning song of gratitude and praise,

For the kind mercy He has shown in length'ning out my days.

He kept me safe another night; I see another day;

Now may His Spirit, as the light, direct me in His way.

From In Green Pastures...

Finding the Good in God's World.

Thankfulness or unthankfulness is largely a matter of eyes.  Two men look at the same scene: one beholds the defects, the imperfections; the other beholds the beauty, the brightness.  If you cannot find things to be thankful for today, every day, the fault is in yourself, and you ought to pray for a new heart, a heart to see God's goodness and to praise him.  A happy heart transfigures all the world for us.  It finds something to be thankful for in the barest circumstances, even in the night of sorrow.  Let us train ourselves to see the beauty and the goodness in God's world, in our own lot, and then we shall stop grumbling, and all our experiences shall start songs of praise in our heart.