Pure Worship = Medicine For The Soul

   While studying Gods Word today, He brought to mind a worship memory I had, where He used worship to pull me from a "pit".  I also came across some interesting facts about singing. 
As I studied, I was also reminded of how we learn things in school sometimes, with song.  We used singing to learn the alphabet, our states, and even the constitution.  For all your School House Rock fans from back in the day...remember learning about verbs, nouns, interjections etc.... from all those great School House Rock cartoons and songs.  I can still sing many of them by heart.   Singing sure does something powerful doesn't it?  Its a great tool for our memory. I often find myself in my own classroom, sing-songing to my kids to get across a point I want them to remember.
     Deuteronomy 31 tells us of a time when God told His people to write a song so that they could remember a particular time.
Colossians 3:16 says "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Twice we are commanded to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. One reason is, singing develops remembering.
God doesn't only tell us to praise Him, but to sing His praises.  There is power in our song!  There is power in worship!

I am reminded of a time several months ago, when I was praying for my best friend over a situation.  When I was done praying, the Lord brought to mind a song I remember learning and singing as a kid. "My God is so BIG, so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's NOTHING my GOD cannot do!"  I had not thought of that song in years...but BAM, there it was.  I shared that moment with my friend and I remember him telling me that it made Him smile and gave peace, as it was a good reminder of who our God is. ;)

Psalm 96:1  Sing to the Lord a new song!  Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

     The science geek in me who loves and has a degree in health, loved to think about what it does to the body chemistry.  Researchers have discovered that singing is like a tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits. 
That peaceful feeling may come from endorphins, a hormone released by singing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. Or it might be from oxytocin, another hormone released during singing. This hormone has been found to alleviate anxiety and stress. It also enhances feelings of trust. In other words, singing reduces depression and lifts our spirits! And it helps us trust. Could this be another reason God tells us to sing?
Furthermore, the benefits of singing regularly seem to be cumulative. People who sing often have lower stress levels. They have better heart rates. Studies have shown that singing, and group singing, relieves anxiety and adds to our quality of life. That alone is reason to sing.  
Lets, however, look at it on a deeper level. How much more healing would it be to WORSHIP!!? 

  Anyone who knows my heart, even a little bit, KNOWS that I am crazy about worship.  There are so many ways people look at worship, but let me clarify one thing.  Worship is not just merely singing. Worship is something that truly comes from the heart and its a reflection of what is truly in the heart.  To sing is not always done in worship.  Some people will attempt to worship with the heart agenda of proving who THEY are.  Worship is not about proving who YOU are, it's completely 100% about proving who GOD is.  If the agenda is anything different, its not pure worship...its just singing. 

I am reminded of the many times I have found myself in a stressful situation. I am always drawn to worship. I used to think it was my way of holding on to my peace. I am finding out, it was not my way at all. It was Gods way, all along. He was and is helping me to maintain peace in stressful situations,with the power of song, the power of WORSHIP! More and more we see scientist discovering what God has known all along.   

Worship is beneficial to us. Worship helps our faith. It helps our heart. It aids in healing. It helps us remember His Word, and His promises, and that He holds us in the palm of His hand. Worship is powerful. Today, sing to the Lord a new song!

  My beautiful and close friend Taylor, doing what God has gifted her to do in leading pure worship.

How Do You Leave People?

     I was at a soccer game this weekend and during the game, I heard a group of students making fun of a player from another school.  They were shouting to him every time he came near by yelling his number and then yelling things to put him down.  He, literally, was not doing anything but playing the game. This is something that makes me so angry, especially as a coach when I hear such unsportsmanlike behavior, I felt myself becoming enraged inside the more it continued.  I finally, not being able to take any more, turned around to these students and said "Do you feel bigger now?  That was the goal wasn't it?"  As the words left my mouth, I began wondering if I had lost my mind...I mean seriously it could have ended up very ugly...and was I prepared for that? NOPE! But the words had already left my heart and came straight from my mouth.  I am happy to say that they actually stopped without another word said. I was shocked, and my mood shifted to more irritated simply because I don't understand how people can be so hateful. 
 I was already wondering why I was at the cold rainy game.  I didn't feel like my presence was needed there, feeling like it was pointless, like I was pointless, but God had told me to go and I wanted to be obedient. Im not going to lie, I questioned it.
 There are a couple kids on one of the teams that I am close to, I have known since they were in 5th grade, and I wanted to see play.  After a very close game, being tied most of the game, the team I went to see lost in the end.  It was heart wrenching for them.  When the boys came off the field, the two boys separately at different times came directly to me first in the crowd, I was surprised they each spotted me so easily.  They were crying hard and they threw their arms around me for comfort, words of encouragement and reassurance.  I was speechless inside, but spoke my heart to each of them differently looking them in the eye.  It was in that moment I understood my purpose...the importance of me being there was in that very specific moment.... in those words of affirmation that evidently were needed.  Another parent tapped me on the back after the second embrace and the wiping of tears and said "I'm so glad you are here".  I have never seen this woman in my life to my knowledge, so I just smiled for lack of knowing even what to say.  I literally walked out directly to my car and left and went home.  My heart was heavy.
I am not sharing any of this for accolades.  I am not in need of praise or pats on the back for any of it, that is not my point.  I only share this because of the importance of being obedient to what God asks, even when, especially when it doesn't make sense to our human minds.  Our job on this earth may be unclear at times.  We may know our callings or we may not have yet discovered it.  Regardless of your calling and whether you recognize what it is, there is one thing that is clear to me, its not as complicated as we make it out to be.....simply...we are to love, speak truth to, and defend people like Jesus.  We are to leave people better than you found them.  We are to hug the hurt, kiss the broken, befriend the lost, and love the lonely.  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. PERIOD.  
Philippians 2:3-4  Do nothing out of self ambition or out of vain conceit.  Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

The Struggle

     It seemed like the day I turned 40 my eyes decided to rebel.  I struggled more and more with reading things.  I went to the eye doctor thinking that, over all, my eyes or contact prescription had changed but the eye doctor said my prescription really had not.  He said to me "you just need a pair of reading glasses".  Inside I gasped, but I already had kind of known that this was the answer,  just didn't want to admit it.  He told me that I could just easily go to a store and pick up a pair of the weakest prescription they had and that should do the trick.  I really didn't want to, but eventually I caved.  Now I am much older and I pretty much have a pair in every room of my house, including my purse and at work in my desk.  I only seem to need them when I read or am working on the computer.  I can get away without them, but I have come to the conclusion of "why struggle?".  The battle was really with my admittance that I needed to wear them.  I have contacts because I don't like things on my face, but I also don't like how I look in glasses.  The battle was admitting that I needed them to make my life easier and getting over myself.  As I think about it, again the Lord used this to speak to my heart.  I laughed out loud because He just knows me so well and clearly how my mind thinks.
     It seems that when something is going on in our lives, where we know we are struggling, we either don't want to admit the struggle, admit we need help, or we don't want to release the struggle to actually receive the help, and maybe we are afraid of how we might look if we admit that there is a struggle.
What is going on in your life that you need to release to God?  You know you are struggling, but you are either afraid of admitting the struggle, asking for help, or we are just afraid to let go of it fully.
1 Peter 5:7 comes to mind where He tells us literally, to cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us.
Then remembering that Ephesians 3:20 and that He is able to more that we could ever ask or think of in our lives.
Then lets not forget that He knows the plans He has for us.  He has plans to prosper and not to harm us, and one to give us a hope and a future in Jeremiah 29:11.
Also on of my favorites; Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

We also need to remember that in our weaknesses He is strong.  I think that so often we forget that.  Our lives become so much easier when we allow Him to fight battles for us.  When we release our cares, be still, and allow Him to do a work because His grace is sufficient for us. Trust Him.

2 Corinthians 12:9

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My 

strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I 

will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ 

may rest upon me.