Blessings by Laura Story

Blessings

Laura Story

from the album Blessings

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

(Chorus)
'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if the thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

 

Reaching Out

The other day, I decided to start listening to K-Love.  You know, the Christian music station.  A lot of you listen to this station.  This month they are promoting to listening to nothing but Christian music for a month and tell them how it affected you.   I like the concept, so I decided to give it a try.  So far, I have heard a couple of new songs that I like.  This one below being one.  It's called Reaching For You.  It's a good song to start a service with.  I imagined, when I heard it, some movements for it that kids may enjoy doing.  It's that kind of song, you know, a get-up-and-move kind of song.  But more than that, the words moved me.  Then I read Psalm 56.  The last couple of lines to the psalm reminded me of this song.  Here is verses 12 and 13. 

I present my thank offerings to you..., ...that I may walk before God in the light of life. I reach out to God.  I love him and want to always be with him. 

 ¹² I am under vows to you, my God;
   I will present my thank offerings to you.
¹³ For you have delivered me from death
   and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
   in the light of life.
Reaching For You
Songwriters:  Paul Baloche, Lincoln Brewster
Performed by Lincoln Brewster

You created me inside Your great imagination
You're the One who gave me my first breath
You have overseen my life and brought me to redemption
And I know that You're not finished with me yet

I'm reaching for You
I'm singing to You
I'm lifting my hands to praise You
I'm lifting my voice to thank You
I'm reaching for You
Jesus I need You
I'm giving my heart to know You
I'm living my life to serve You
I'm reaching for You

You're the one who spoke the Word of life to light my darkness
You opened up my eyes 'til I could see
Jesus You have promised to complete the work You started
Faithful to fulfill Your grace in me

Pour out Your love from heaven
Fill me until I overflow Lord I want more
Reach down Your hands from heaven
Pull me closer than ever before Lord I want more
Pour out Your love from heaven
Fill me until I overflow 'cause I want more
Reach down Your hands from heaven
Pull me closer than ever before Lord I want more

Oh I'm reaching
God I'm reaching for You

A New Song

How often do you want to learn a new song?  There are some great newer songs out there.  Psalms talks a lot about a new song.  Is that a real song that we will just know by the time we get to heaven, or is that a figure of speech?  I hope it's real.  The choir is singing a lot of newer songs now.  Some people like them, others do not.  Some say the songs are too repetitive.  Some say they don't get much meat out of the message in the songs.  I think sometimes the words are the same over, under, back and front.  But there is a lot of verses in the Bible the same way.  I don't look at it as mindless chatter.  I am thankful for the fact that God gave someone the talent to do this and now I can share in it.

Psalm 40
¹I waited patiently for the LORD;
         And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
    ²He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
         And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
    ³He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
         Many will see and fear
         And will trust in the LORD.
    ⁴How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust,
         And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

Why Can't All God's Children Get Along?

Karen Peck and New River have a song out called Why Can't All God's Children Get Along?  This song is so poignant and spot on.  Read the words.  Go on, I'll wait.

WHY CAN’T ALL GOD’S CHILDREN GET ALONG
CHORUS
WHY CAN’T ALL GOD’S CHILDREN GET ALONG?
WE CAN’T ALL BE RIGHT, WE CAN’T ALL BE WRONG
WE’RE JUST DIFFERENT SINGERS IN THE SAME ‘OL SONG
WHY CAN’T ALL GOD’S CHILDREN GET ALONG
V1
RED AND YELLOW BLACK BROWN AND WHITE
WE ALL LOOK THE SAME IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT
HOOPIN’ AND HOLLERIN’ PUTTIN’ UP THE FIGHT
DARK DAYS ARE COMIN’ I CAN SEE THE LIGHT
V2
ONCE UPON A TIME THINGS WERE SUNNY AND BLUE
THE WORLD WAS A GARDEN BUT THERE WERE ONLY TWO
FOUR CAME ALONG WITH THEIR OWN POINT OF VIEW
IF IT’S GONNA GET GOOD, IT’S UP TO ME AND YOU.

Did you see that?  We are just different singers in the same song, we all look the same in the dead of the night.  How true all that is.   So next time you start getting irritated with your brother or sister in your church family, think about this song.  Is it that important to be right?  Did what they said or did mean enough that it will change your salvation?  The only thing that will change your attitude is you.

I am glad I have different people in my life.  I have some that keeps me on my toes, some that I can fall back on and some I can observe and be amused by.  Sometimes I shake my head at people, but I try hard not to worry about what they say or do.  God will sort it out for us.

I Will Call Upon the Lord

Today, I have a post at Seeds of Faith.  I hope you can take the time to go and read it.  I am very excited about this opportunity.

Today's Psalm is the 18th chapter.  From the third verse, one of my favorite camp/praise songs is taken.


Psalm 18:3
³I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. 

I Will Call Upon the Lord

I will call upon the Lord

Who is worthy to be praised.

So shall I be saved from my enemies,

I will call upon the Lord.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock

And let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock.

And let the God of my salvation be exalted.

All it says is that when I call upon the Lord, he will save me.  He is worthy of praise and adoration.  He is my Rock, and he is my salvation.  What more is there to say? 

Changing It Up A Bit

Welcome and thanks to all the new interested bloggers.  I hope that here at Lifting You Up will be an inspiration to you and that if you feel it's worthy, you will pass this along to others that may need to here this message.

For those who are new, this devotion started as a need to connect with the people my family loves and who loves us.  The need was to help my parents.  My father was diagnosed with throat cancer in February of 2009 and there were so many things happening at once I started email everyone I knew almost every day to give them  updates so they wouldn't call my parents constantly and ask them.  As time went on this grew and now I email almost 90 people Monday through Friday a devotion.  I don't think I am very good at it and sometimes I feel I get lost in the daily grind, but people seem to like what I have to say, so I keep with it.

Last night at evening service, we sang a lot of older hymns we don't sing as much during the morning service.  My dad and I have two songs that we always change the words to to make the song more personal.  Most of you know the first one, Love Lifted Me.  The chorus goes like this...

Love lifted me, love lifted me,

When nothing else could help

Love lifted me.

Love lifted me, love lifted me

When nothing else could help

Love lifted me.

Now, here is our version of the chorus.

John three sixteen, John three sixteen, 

When nothing else could help

John three sixteen.

John three sixteen, John three sixteen,

When nothing else could help

John three sixteen.

How so very true this change is.  When nothing else helps you in life, you can remember that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  How many times have I said that verse just when I felt like no one loved me or a situation was hopeless?  That someday, because I do believe in Jesus and accepted him as my Personal Savior, I will not perish, but have eternal Life.  Praise the Lord!

The second song was one we sang last night...Have You Been To Jesus (not quite sure that is the title, but that is the first line of the song).  This chorus goes like this.

Are you washed in the blood,

In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?

Are your garments spotless are they white as snow?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

I think in our hymnal there are three verses for this song.  On the last verse we change it to say this.

 

 

I am washed in the blood,

In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb.

My garments are spotless, they are white as snow.

I am washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I like to make that proclamation to everyone that I am a bonafide, soul-cleaned sinner and I want to tell you all about it.  So, do you have a song that you change the words to make more personal to your life?  Let me know.