Will You Respond?

How beautiful is the thought that the Creator of the Universe is right by our side and waits for us to talk to Him? He never stops thinking of us, in fact he has already thought of us, and poured out His love for us before we have even opened our eyes each and every morning!

Zephaniah 3:17 says “ The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. “ Wow. The truth in that scripture amazes me. I would love to hear that! I wonder what lyrics He would choose as He sings over me?

I remember while in high school, if you wanted to declare your love or admiration publicly to someone, one way you could do that was by calling in to the local radio station during a live broadcast. You sometimes had to try calling several times because in the 80’s, you would get a “busy signal” as other listeners were also attempting to call in their song requests. Once you were able to bypass the busy signal and the DJ would finally answer the phone, you would then request to have a certain song played on air and have it dedicated to your “crush”. What a thrill it was to hear your requested song played on the air, and listen as the DJ announced to all who was listening that this very song is how you chose to express your love and admiration for your crush of the week! (Haha, kidding. I didn’t have a weekly crush.) You would then hope that somehow your crush heard the song being played on the air for all to hear, and also hope that the underlying message in the lyrics of the special song you chose would be noticed.

Then, the wait. Will that special someone respond?

Doesn’t it seem silly now with having today’s technology and sharing capabilities at our fingertips that so many steps and measures needed to be taken to simply share a song to express your love to a person? The other option was to linger around someone's window with a boom box blaring or serenade someone in the middle of the night. Choosing to call into the radio station seemed like the safer bet to me. :)

Our Heavenly Father rejoices over us, shouts with joy, and sings over us throughout HEAVEN! When John had his vision of heaven, he wrote, “ There before me was a great multitude that none could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9) Imagine that. With His own lyrics and melody…He rejoices over YOU! Imagine what that audience looks like!

There was a time when my younger self was so out of control that I allowed stress and other worldly day to day woes overshadow His voice in my life. I couldn’t hear God’s voice or His song in my spirit. I had not yet learned to fully engage in spiritual battles through prayer, fasting and worship. Because of this, He seemed very far away from me. (Even though he was not.) I remembered to pray and talk to God only when I was at my wits end, or my heart was breaking, or I was feeling totally lost with no hope in sight. Even so, I remembered to pray. Thankfully, I drew closer to God because as I continued to call on Him, I kept experiencing his grace and mercy in my life. He was faithful to me over and over. It wasn’t until I began to pursue an understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, that I began to hear His song in my heart. As I drew closer to God, my praise and worship for Him grew stronger and more frequent. Gospel and contemporary music was my avenue in my early praise and worship life, and the more I listened the more I began to realize that God sometimes chooses to minister through lyrics. I noticed that every now and then a song would stick in my head or linger in my heart for a while and I would cling to the lyrics. I would later learn that when I would cling to that song and I sang it out loud in my car, in the shower, or all day long in my head for days on end and sometimes weeks, I was making declarations over myself through those lyrics or depending on the song- glorifying Christ.

Have you ever been awakened in the morning with a song in your heart? Have you ever felt like your spirit was already praising God way before you rolled out of bed? I have experienced this many times. More recently, a particular song I heard had become my personal anthem for the season I was in. The lyrics to this song are alive ( just like God’s word is living and alive in the bible) and if you allow them to move in your soul and linger in your heart, you'll find the message is very spirit led.

The song is by Travis Greene (featuring Trinity Anderson, D’Nar Young, and Taylor Poole) and it is titled Respond. This song led me to think back on my life and remember the times our Heavenly Father was calling me and I did not respond due to mostly fear of the unknown, and inevitable change. But I needed God in my life and learned to let go of the fear, accept the changes, and trust Him with my whole heart. Praying, praising and worshiping - until it was time for me to respond. Over the years, responding to God's call required me to develop a gift of discernment to be certain that what I believed to be a "calling" was in line with scripture. (Reference Romans 12:6-8)

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

When He calls you, how will you respond? Are you spiritually ready to take on a given task? Are you able to surrender yourself to His calling? When your life is out of control and you’re having trouble hearing his voice, will you still call on Him?

When you call on God there won’t be a busy signal. Do you know that He will reach out and call YOU right in the middle of the storm you are facing? At the same time, God will often speak through quiet moments, through other people, through ordinary life circumstances, and sometimes even through lyrics. Are you listening? If you experience a song lingering in your heart, pay attention. God may be calling you. Will you respond to His call?

“ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” - Colossians 3:16.

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