Skip to main content

Songs & Storms




Music is powerful, it reaches to deep places, invokes deep emotion.  Songs reflect what our own voice would cry if it could.  But can a simple song change your life?  It can.  If that song settles in your soul and it is birthed into prayer, rising like a fragrant offering before the LORD, then it can...

I remember the moment my life was changed and I didn't even know it until after it had come...  It was on an early morning in 2007.  As was my ritual I had the radio on as I got ready for the day. An unfamiliar tune was playing and I was casually listening until these words stuck deep chords "...so I pray bring me joy, bring me peace, bring the chance to be free, bring me anything that brings You glory, and I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain but if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus bring the rain.."   I had never heard the song before, yet recognized it immediately and time stood still in a moment of deep worship and I sang out the words I had not known.  Even as the moment passed I knew that something was set in motion...    

I needed this song so I bought the cd (Mercy Me - Bring the Rain) and after listening to the whole song, it became my prayer.  Somehow I knew to pray this "whatever" prayer. (Often the most dangerous prayer voiced - "LORD, whatever it takes to_____")  I believe God sees that as a complete submission and strikes while the iron is hot to bring about His work in a life.  Even as I would sing the song over and over, each time it came to the "pain and rain" parts it sank deeper into my soul and my soul cried for it, begged for it. Like it could hear the distant roll of thunder and was calling it home...  

Unaware that the clouds had already been gathering overhead for most of the year, missing the obvious things of God, and instead cringing and calling it "life", the first raindrops had already fallen.  And then on July 6, 2007, just two short weeks after the song was birthed into to prayer and rose before the throne of God, thunder shook us to the core, lighting struck home and the perfect storm was loosed... 

and the storm rages on.  But His Glory shines through.

Only God could pour this prayer into my soul, only He could know, and in His Grace prepare me as His Holy Spirit pray through this song.

I must admit that there are times I fail to praise Him in the storm.  Then there are moments when others have asked how I could praise Him, with all that I've been through...  

This writing is dedicated in worship of the One who Is and Is to come.  The Perfect & Holy God whose Love never fails & Whose Grace is always enough.


LORD, thank you for the storm!!!



"I will give thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise You"  Is. 35:18


Mercy Me - Bring the Rain   Turn your speakers up and let the praise begin...

Comments

  1. Deeply provocative.You are so in touch with your God.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Striking deeply the chords of the hearts of those who stand with you during this storm. Knowing that you are completely loved by a Great Big God and immeasurably loved by a little tiny sister.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I confess that I am fearful to pray the "whatever" prayer. Your courage through the storms of life is truly inspirational.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Did something touch your heart? Please share about it.

Popular posts from this blog

When the pain get too big

There are times when the heartbreaks of this life collide with our weakness and the pain gets so big that even breathing is hard.  It’s like being dragged under by the surf and tumbled over and over until up is down and you’re dragged along the bottom and raw wounds meet with salted surf and the searing pain of it is only a faint echo of the pain within your soul and you gasp for breath and flail helplessly, like a rag doll, until you’re eventually released upon the shore coughing up the brine of your own tears… This is where I have been. Literally on the verge of tears at every moment.   Memories, regrets, sorrow, missing, aching, loss - churning, growing to tsunami intensity threatening to overwhelm.   Today I received a devotional from a Jewish Messianic site challenging us regarding the Sabbath.   Oh, how my soul yearned for it.   A Sabbath, a rest.   But the to-do list haunted and I headed to the shower to start the day.   All the while rest was beckoning to me…   What h

It matters not

It matters little who I am. Each one of us has a story to tell, a life filled with love, loss, heartache, joy & laughter.  I am just a busted up pitcher.  Yes, the image that came to your mind - whether one you pour iced tea from, the one with the chip on the lip so it spills as much down the outside of your glass as gets in. Or the little creamer pitcher your gramma had in her hutch, the one with the broken handle that has glue globbed on it's listing side.  Or the one that you pour oil with, the one with the faint crack you overlook because you never think to replace it while you are shopping.  Oh, or maybe it's the purple plastic juice jug that hit the heating coil in the dishwasher... melted a hole an inch from the top but you never fill it that full anyway. No matter what image came to your mind, that's me.  The true value of a pitcher is not it's appearance or even its purpose but it's what the pitcher holds that is precious.  The sole purpose of the p

Un-becoming

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. [Rev 19:7-8]   We’ve all been to weddings. Everything focuses around the bride. My favorite moment is to watch the groom as he catches the first glimpse of his bride, he’s overcome by her beauty – she’s prepared herself specifically and especially for this day.   Now imagine, how does the bride of Christ prepare herself to be radiant for her beloved? Righteous deeds, good works… As I pondered this passage and how it applies to this season,  I heard “Un-becoming” . I sense that this season we are in is a cleansing period, a time of preparation.   UN   becoming who we’ve become; busy, weary, anxious, overburdened, chameleon – being who others want or expect us to be. Lost, depressed, frustrated, needy.  And instead, shed the shackl

The Cost of Freedom

  Memorial Day I once thought I understood the cost of freedom. I’d heard the family stories, my momma named for her uncle shot down over France, I’d been to the parades and ceremonies, could repeat great quotes, I’d seen the movies…   But then a few years ago I walked among the names – name after name after name, reaching far, even unto the horizon;  and the faces of sons and daughters and mothers and fathers – determination in their countenance, fear in their eyes, aged beyond their years.  One caught me as I walked by, gripped my heart and dragged me up close. He stared at me, wanting me to see, wanting to be known. Though his lips unable to speak it, his lifeless eyes told of the horrors he’d seen, the death he’d lived, the life he’d taken. He was just a boy, once full of life, now, full of death. He begged “Remember me.”  And through tears I vowed I would never forget him. Him without a name, an ordinary face – just one among many…  And then I stood, in reverential silence as mirr