I am in a season of learning and re-learning some basic truths about God's deep, abiding and individualized love for me. I may not always ‘catch it’ in the moment, but He is so patient with me and grants me peaceful mornings to catch my breath and reflect on His goodness. I'm learning again, that no matter what life's circumstances may bring, whether external hardships and challenges, or in my case, internal challenges of the mind and spirit, He is relentlessly pursuing me, as my friend Dennis Jernigan reminded me this week.
I was called upon to facilitate our Sunday morning worship time this past Sunday in our local church. I used to do this every week for many years, but now, about once a month. The week and weekend leading up to these assigned weeks are usually filled with extra challenges, especially in my mind and spirit. I've come to know and believe with all my heart that the spiritual battle surrounding anything that has to do with giving God the glory and honor that is rightfully His, is going to be opposed significantly by the evil one. It's just the spiritual reality that we live in here on fallen planet earth, and this past weekend was no different…in fact, it was intensified.
In my preparation time, however, I was definitively led to some songs and arrangements of my own that were very a-typical for our local church. There were some obvious (not negative), pushbacks to some of my choices that manifested in strange ways. However, with limited time, there was no choice but to persevere, and I sensed that was the right thing to do, as well.
One of those song choices that was receiving the most push back was an arrangement that I had composed years ago of the old Isaac Watts hymn, “I Sing The Mighty Power of God”. It is quite different stylistically than our typical fare, and, like most hymns from the 18th century, is a bid ‘wordier’ than our modern worship songs of today. However, I had composed a simple refrain of response to go along with it, to help balance the mind/heart aspects of this classic hymn to nudge it to more a more obvious Godward and worshipful focus.
So…I share all of this background to get to this sequence of events that combined to be one of the most incredible ‘God-winks’ of love toward me that I have experienced in a long time. All of the photos of the glorious ‘lofty skies’ were taken on Saturday, Oct 5, the day and evening before. I just felt compelled to stop and even drive to certain vantage points to get some of these shots. Sunday morning I awoke and my spirit was still troubled. At church there were multiple distractions and technical issues going on in the back throughout our rehearsal time, and it all just felt ‘off’.
Then these two things…one dear friend and member of our worship team who was not on for that day, caught my attention. She wanted to tell me something…Longer story, but she and her husband have been the owners of a local coffee house and cafe' for nearly a decade and had made the heart-wrenching decision to close down this week due to financial reasons. She pulled me in and told me that the song I had chosen for this week contained the lyrics from where they got the name of their cafe'…"Lofty Skies"…taken from the hymn, “I Sing The Mighty Power of God”. *(See lyrics below) I was blown away and looked her in the eye and told her she had ‘no idea’ how much that affirmed the voice of God today…immediately following that, dear friends from my small group, who knew I was struggling and were praying, came and sat up front and spoke words of encouragement and comfort to me. As I hugged one of them, I began to weep on their shoulder saying, “I'm so broken”, with about 30 seconds before I had to start the service.
We began with these simply words…"O God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You!" and eventually came to this powerful anthem of declaration that affirms that all of Creation gives witness and testimony to our Creator God, the lover of our souls.
God is always speaking to us by His Spirit, Jesus is interceding for us at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness to pray and express, sometimes with groans too deep for words. Even when we don't ‘feel’ it or ‘sense it’ we need to know it is true for us who love God and are called according to His purposes and keep going! I'm thanking Him this morning for His simple, but profound personalized gesture of love and affirmation to me this weekend. I needed it so much and give Him all the glory!
Enjoy this wonderful hymn of praise and worship, and may it cause you to see Him easier and faster in all that surrounds you today!
D
I Sing The Mighty Power of God…words by Isaac Watts, additional chorus by Derin Brooks
I sing the Mighty Power of God that made the mountains rise
That spread the flowing seas abroad and built the "LOFTY SKIES!"
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day
The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey
I sing the goodness of the Lord that filled the earth with food
He formed the creatures with His Word and then pronounced them good
Lord how Thy wonders are displayed where 'er I turn my eye
If I survey the ground I tread or gaze upon the sky
There's not a plant nor flower below but makes Thy glories known
And clouds arise and tempests blow by order from Thy throne
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care
And everywhere that we can be Thou God art present there
Chorus:
O I praise You, Lord! My Creator God!
You're the lover of my soul
I'm made to worship You
In spirit and in truth
And join Creation in praising You!