I think this is the main thing: the whole purpose of Christian music is to praise our Lord. When we accept Jesus into our lives and submit ourselves to Him, and obey God, He fills us with the Holy Spirit and we will sing a new song!
And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it
and fear, and shall trust in the Lord... (Psalm 40:3)
It isn't something we have to work at. It's not something we have to cultivate inside of us. It's something that God puts in us, and it's a result of His redeeming us.
It's not the music that enables us to show our love and devotion to God -- those feelings are already there. Praise to God in music is just one part of our expressions of love to Him.
...Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.... (Ephesians 5:18-19)
So, what are you listening to, today?
For some reason I need to get this off my chest. It's not a criticism, it's just my feelings on the matter.
ReplyDeleteI see a growing trend in church services to repeat praise song stanzas many times. Now, there is nothing wrong with that exactly, but my experience has been that after a couple of times, I stop paying attention to the words and worship, and begin wondering how many more times the director is going to repeat the same line.
I do know it's my problem to deal with and I try very hard.
In our church, we seldom sing the old hymns on Sunday morning. I really would love to have a mixture of the new praise songs that I enjoy singing and the old hymns that speak to my soul.
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Holy Holy Holy
Standing on the Promises
Higher Ground
The list goes on and on. And I'm thankful for being able to sing praises to the Lord regardless.
This is perfect and right. I read a devotional addressing this recently and it was a relief to know I didn't always have to be strong in every way.
ReplyDeleteWe've noticed the same thing, Belinda. And like you, I agree that there is a place for praise choruses. But they seem to be way too prevalent now, and, to me at least, are used to get the emotions of people engaged. There isn't a lot of content about exactly who the God is that is being praised. At the last church we attended, it was like being at a concert, where all we could hear was the music of the band and its singers. It was like the congregation were spectators, rather than involved in the music themselves.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I'm listening to lately, Michael Card's version of Come Thou Font of Every Blessing is lovely.