December 22, 2024

Anchor Of Hope

November 11, 2015 by

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

Marvelous, Wonderful, Infinite God
Author of all that is good
Faithful Provider and Giver of life
Source of all power and love

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise
Refuge of strength to the end
Righteous Redeemer and mighty to save
He’s the Anchor of Hope for the souls of men

Gracious, Compassionate, Merciful God
Radiant, holy Delight
Beautiful Father, Victorious Son
Source of unchangeable Light

You are Light in the dark,
You are healing for the broken heart
You are Hope, you are Lord,
You are Life, you are Love that endures

Powerful, Constant, Unwavering God
Shepherd who comes for the lost
Rock of salvation, Remarkable Love
Savior Who died on the Cross


Ellie Holcomb, singer/songwriter

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Sometimes, I think, we sing and speak out our praise of our great God in simple, few words… Y’know…”Praise the Lord!  Praise You, Jesus!  I give You praise!  You are worthy of praise!  Praise You!”  These are the words that come from my mouth oh-so-many times; you, too?  But I do believe that many times my praises should be filled with specific expressions of my gratitude and acknowledgement of just Who He is.

We do this when we are relating our praise about others, right? When I am praising any other person on this earth, I don’t simply say–for example, ‘Oh, I just praise Kassia…she’s so good!’ Or, ‘Oh, you should see that Cynda; wow!’  No; I say, ‘Oh, it was so awesome! Can I tell you about how Clella ministered to me when she wrote about giving thanks…?  She shared some very impactful verses.’  Shouldn’t it be likewise, when praising Almighty God, I should be specific about His awesome lovingkindness, His mercy, His grace, His steadfast love!?!  Yes?

The Psalmist—King David— was really, really, really good at this!  Of the 150 individual psalms which form the Book of Psalms in the Bible, more than 80 have been ascribed to David.  David, who God called ‘a man after my own heart,’ wrote phrase after phrase (praise after praise!) filled with praises of His God…and praising Him specifically.  Listen to a few examples of David’s praises.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 107:1

The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation—
The God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me,
Who delivered me from my enemies;
yes, You exalted me above those who rose against me;
You rescued me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise you, O Lord….
Psalms 18:46-49

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
Sing the glory of His name; give to Him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power that Your enemies come cringing to You.
All the earth worships You and sings praises to You;
they sing praises to your name.”
Selah
Psalms 66:1-4

As is written in Psalm 107:2 “Let the redeemed of the Lord {that is you and me!} say so…”  Be specific when you sing or speak or shout your praises to Your loving Father!  And when you are praising Him to others…use words to tell them about how wonderful, loving, faithful, compassionate, merciful, and gracious your heavenly Father is!  As Mrs. Ellie Holcomb has done in this song—she sings out her praises of what He has done and how very good He is!  I love to sing along with her blessing my God and praising and thanking Him!  You, too?

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Oh, Lord, we do so love to praise You—and we have so very many, many, many opportunities to praise You for Your goodness, Your faithfulness, Your kindness, Your love!  Forgive us, Lord, when we have failed to voice the whys of our praises!  We, truly, have so very much to praise and thank You for…may we not be remiss in telling you exactly why!  We love You and adore you, Lord!  Please hear our thankfulness as we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Filed Under: Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Completely

September 28, 2014 by

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

I’m feeling so small
Standing here weeping
As I’m coming clean
Of the secrets I’m keeping
I’ve caused so much pain
To the ones I love most
And I’m falling apart
As I carry my heart to Your throne

I am completely surrendering
Finally giving You everything
You’re my Redeemer, I run to the Cross
Because You are more than enough
Lord, complete me
‘Cause I’m Yours completely

I’m letting go
There’s nothing I own
The treasures I held
Just weighed down my soul
And there’s nothing left
Inside of me
But a longing for You
And a longing to be the man that You need

I let Your gifts take the place of You
But You pulled up my selfishness from its roots
I am a broken and fragile me
But I’m where You want me to be

Performed by Among The Thirsty
Songwriters: Ryan Squitieri and Stephanie Lewis

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Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory,
because of Your love and faithfulness.
Psalm 115:1

Let’s say it’s one of your children’s birthdays and you’ve gotten them the gift that they’ve always wanted. You saved and saved and searched and shopped and finally found the gift that’s on the top of the list. They unwrap it and scream with excitement. They go on and on about how much they wanted it and dreamed about it and then they take it and put it in their room. They go about their business, unwrapping the rest of the presents and finish the cake and ice cream. What did they forget? Oh yes, they never thanked you for the gift! How would you be feeling about now? I know! Totality unappreciated and forgotten and you would really have your feelings hurt. I would. They loved the gift and forgot the giver.

Turn my heart toward Your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Psalm 119:36

Often we do the same thing. We focus so much on the blessings—actually put more importance on them—than the blesser. Just like the song says…we let His gifts take the place of Him, yet He keeps on giving. He gives us all we need, yet we worry about whether we will have enough. As you listen to this song, I encourage you to lay it all at His feet and surrender everything to Him. Not just the hard things that you are going through but the gifts that He continues to give so that you are open to receive even more of Him.

You are my Portion, O Lord, I have promised to obey Your Words.
Psalm 119:57

When Jesus came and walked the earth as a man and experienced all that we do, He went before us and paved the way. He gave us an example to live by. And when we get overwhelmed by the things of this world, we are to go to the foot of the Cross and surrender our lives to Him. We let Him know what we have done, those we have hurt, and sins we have committed  You say that He knows already, and yes…He does; but we still need to voice it to the Savior.

Don’t let the enemy keep you in shame of the past. God has called you for so much more than  that. As a wise lady said in her talk at our women’s ministry brunch:

“The enemy calls us by our shame, but Jesus calls us by our name.”
Stephanie Payne

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Let us pray: Dearest Heavenly Father, You are so awesome. You love us so much. You know everything there is to know about us and still You love us so much. You wait on us to come to You and tell You all about what is going on in our lives. You love to just sit with us. Oh Lord, forgive us when we focus so much on the blessings and the gifts and forget to keep our eyes on You. We forget to thank You for this amazing life that You have called us to. Keep us close, Lord, give us so much love for others that we are overflowing.  May we continue to be a witness to all who still are struggling. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Filed Under: Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Glory! Glory be to…Wait, Who is glory for?

August 18, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.

Psalm 115:1

A few days ago, I finally re-enrolled in college. I came up with quite a few reasons why I couldn’t go back; but overall, every one of my excuses were fear based. Even now, some of the logistics of this new endeavor have yet to be worked out. But (as I had to remind myself going in)—trust God and He will guide you.

Now, that I’m re-enrolled, I’m kind of excited! I’ve told the news to many of the closest people in my life, and heard plenty of “I’m proud of you!” Which, of course, is easy for me to soak up. Yes, I do feel good about accomplishing something that I’ve said I was going to do and, oh, how easy it would be for me to feel self-accomplished. But without the Lord’s favor I wouldn’t be going back to school at all…so glory be to Him!

For years I’ve been denied free financial aid. This year out, of the blue and at the very last minute, I received a grant…finally. I practically talked myself out of taking the grant, until a random comment to the most unlikely person turned into a handshake and a promise that I’d at least go to the school and talk with an advisor. So first I had to wait for a letter that came 3 days before I had to have everything done. Then I was told I had to take a 3 hour-long test (3 hours before I had to be to work), and then I was sent on a scavenger hunt all around campus trying to finish things up.

Every bit of the way, I had a voice in my head trying to give me excuse after excuse for why I should not be doing this. But, with every excuse, that little voice gave, I heard a louder voice give me reason after reason to trust in God. And thank God for that! All I did was take the steps the Lord placed before me and for that He deserves all the glory.

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Thank You, Lord, for being glorious beyond all measure.  Amen.

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Only For You, Lord

October 9, 2013 by

Not to us, O LORD, not to us  but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
Psalm 115:1

Who should receive glory?  GOD ALONE!  Glory does not go to: us, anything that looks like us, anything that comes from us, or anything that is around us.  This statement is true for the past, now, and all times.  More importantly, Psalm 115:1, God’s Word, is true for all times, and God is the supreme example of love and faithfulness as is evident throughout the pages of the Bible! (The best example is that He sent His Son, Jesus, to the world to be a sacrifice for our sins!  See John 3:16.)

In Biblical times, many worshipped man-made idols.  Are you thinking how absurd it is for people to worship things they produced with their own hands?  Yes, you’re correct.  And it’s equally absurd for people to worship anything or anyone besides God: self, people, money, fame, or position.  How can we keep this from ever happening to us?

If we all truly had the correct perspective of how great and magnificent God truly is as Lord, Savior, Creator, and King, we would be awestruck by His wonderful and powerful Presence for an eternity and give Him glory alone!  Don’t you see?  The more we know Him and draw closer to Him through His Word, in faith, and in prayer, the more that love for Him keeps intensifying and growing.  Let’s guard our hearts so that HE alone is worshipped and adored passionately!

I know of someone who had it right…who spoke passionately in the wilderness over two thousand years ago!  I really like this man, this prophet, this one who boldly spoke about Jesus and made Him the focus in his life.  John the Baptist took the opportunities he had to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming.  “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29).  He was bold, but not proud. He knew who he himself was in comparison to Jesus (extremely lower than Jesus). When referring to Jesus, John the Baptist said, “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:27).  I’ll give you this – John the Baptist was very different.  But that was good, and that was God-glorifying good!  Because you see, from God’s perspective, that‘s what He wanted from John the Baptist!

John the Baptist spoke with God-glorifying purpose “…saying, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (Matthew 3:2). We also want to live with God-glorifying purpose in various ways daily.

And like John the Baptist, we want to have the correct perspective of Who Jesus is so that we can worship Him and give Him glory as our one true God.  We want to have the correct perspective of ourselves (sinners who always need a Savior and who are lavished in His love). And we need a surrendered perspective to step out boldly and differently, if need be, in order to achieve His God-glorifying purposes in our lives for Him.

Like the Jews written about in Psalm 115:1 and like John the Baptist, we want to worship God alone and give glory to Him alone!

And like John the Baptist, wouldn’t we rather be

   in the light,
           walking odd for God …
                  than in the dark,
                       walking proud with the crowd?
I would.

I’d rather be different and hoping to bring Him glory than blending in with the many who don’t desire to at all.

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Dear Lord, help us all to give You alone great glory and be grateful daily for what You have done in our lives.  We love You and praise You!  In Jesus’ precious Name.

Amen.

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Praise Him – Use Words

October 7, 2013 by

SeekingHimLogo

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your name give glory, for Your mercy and loving-kindness and for the sake of Your truth and faithfulness!

Psalm 115:1

Sometimes, I think, we sing and speak out our praise of our great God…giving Him glory…but failing to voice why we are glorifying Him.  Y’know…”Praise the Lord!  Praise You, Jesus!  Praise You, praise You, praise You!”  These are the words that come from my mouth at times.  Perhaps my praises should be filled with specific expressions of my gratitude.  We do this when we are relating our praise about others, right?  When I am praising any other person on this earth, I don’t  simply say–for example, ‘Oh, I just praise Megan…she’s so good!’  No; I say, ‘Oh, it was so awesome!  We have reached the end of the ‘Seven’ journey, and Megan was sharing her heart…her words just spoke so eloquently!  I am so thankful for her ability to communicate heart matters!’   Likewise, when praising Almighty God, we should be specific about His awesome lovingkindness, His mercy, His grace, His steadfast love!  Yes?

The Psalmist—King David— was really, really, really good at this!  Of the 150 individual psalms which make up the Book of Psalms in the Bible, approximately 80 have been ascribed to David.  David, who God called ‘a man after my own heart,’ wrote phrase after phrase (praise after praise!)  filled with praises of His God…and praising Him specifically.  Here are a few examples of David’s praises.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 107:1

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation—
The God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me,
Who delivered me from my enemies; yes, You exalted me above
those who rose against me; You rescued me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise you, O Lord….
Psalms 18:46-49

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
Sing the glory of His name; give to Him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power that Your enemies come cringing to You.
All the earth worships You and sings praises to You; they sing praises to your name.”   Selah
Psalms 66:1-4

As is written in Psalm 107:2 “Let the redeemed of the Lord <that is you and me!> say so…”  Be specific when you sing or speak or shout your praises to Your loving Father!  And when you are praising Him to others…use words to tell them about your wonderful, loving, faithful, compassionate, merciful, gracious Father!

* * * * *

Oh, Lord, we do so love to praise You—and we have so very many, many, many opportunities to praise You for Your goodness, Your faithfulness, Your kindness, Your love!  Forgive us, Lord, when we have failed to voice the whys of our praises!  We, truly, have so very much to praise and thank You for…may we not be remiss in telling you exactly why!  We love you, Lord!  Amen.

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,