I waited paitently for the Lord, and He turned to me and heard my cry for help. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. (Ps. 40:1-3)(HCSB) I believe that as Christians, God has placed a song in our hearts--a new song-- a hymn of praise to our God. Each and every song is unique, therefore only we can sing the song God puts in our mouth. It may not be a song that we sing as a solo during a Sunday worship service or a stirring anthem that we sing in the church choir. Instead, it may be a song that we "sing" by inviting a co-worker to Sunday School or by sharing our personal testimony to a friend. It might be that we can sing the song God has given us by ministering to the homeless or helping serve the families in the Family Promise program. Our song may be voiced best as a prayer prayed with someone who is suffering over the loss of a family member. God may call us to sing that song to a total stranger at a chance encounter by sharing what the Lord has done in our life.
We all have a song from God, and each one is unique. Only we can sing our song, but we first have to make the decision to open our mouth so that the song can be heard. As we sing our song through the faithful service, witness and testimony of our lives, we can expect to see what the psalmist writes in Ps. 40:3--Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
As one of my friends shared this week at the Men's Prayer Meeting that he was praying for God to give him a renewed boldness to share his faith and witness more agressively in the new year, I thought of this passage and my desire to see God moving during our invitation times here at the Ridge. It's my prayer that we will all "step up to the microphone", so to speak, in 2010 and sing our unique hymn of praise so that many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. For that to become a reality--for our song to make an impact on lost souls--for us to see professions of faith, baptisms and lives rededicated in our Sunday services--we have to make up our minds to open our mouths and tell somebody about Jesus! So, what do you say? Will you do that with me?
Singing His Praises,
Joey Culpepper