My heartstrings become “out of tune,” immediately when they’re hit with news of the world today.
So, I fight to think of something good. This hymn always rescues me:
Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise, (Come Thou Fount, Robert Robinson, 1758).
This is the prayer I can’t find to pray when I’m hit with sudden heaviness. I need a heart tune-up.
“Come thou Fount of every blessing!”
So, I talk to the Lord,
“Jesus, Your greatest work is You died on the cross, for me. For the “sins of the world, You are the Lamb of God.”
I think of the two guilty men on either side of You, each on a cross. You were innocent, without guilt, shame, or sin.
Yet, one of the guilty men was changed in an instant. He watched You, listened to You, and he believed. And he rebuked the other criminal.”
So, I opened God’s Word to read the account.
Everything became crystal clear to him:
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise”
(Luke 23: 39-43).
This thief and liar was instantly changed. In the presence of the Lord, He watched. he heard. He believed. That’s what the Lord is showing me I must do. Everyday.
My heaviness and attitude are lifted and softened. I look at Jesus in His Word and hear what He says.
The hymn reminds me: I need continual reminders of the power of God, whom I believe.
I’ve got to fight the fight of faith all day long with praise and prayer:
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it
mount of God’s redeeming love (Come Thou Fount, Robinson).
I went to a “melodious sonnet,” in Psalm 98. I discover again, my heavy heart becomes hopeful, with faith, to believe God is great again. I have thankfulness again.
God’s Word is living:
“Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God” Psalm 98: 1-3.
God’s reminding me, “Keep your eyes on My marvelous works and pray to Me. Ask of Me!
“Do you love My ocean? The sound of My rivers? My sunrises, My sunsets?
Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98:7-9.
God is Big. There’s nothing our God can’t do!
There is power in the name of Jesus. There’s life in His Word. This is my safe place.
Today, will you join me to lift our eyes, and, yes, even our hands in faith and praise the Lord, together? Today,
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help, I’ve come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above (Come Thou Fount, Robinson).
As an orchestra, with eyes up, yes, and even arms raised, let’s be changed in an instant in faith of God through Jesus, His Son:
Here’s my heart
Oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Tell someone of your heart change, your new attitude. And let a child keep our faith on track with this: