John 4:4 “ Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” This episode talks about the MercyMe song "Greater." This song is so good. It talks about all the ways that the world tries to bring us down, and how it doesn’t matter what they say or do, because God is living inside of us and He is greater than those living in the world. I thought I would talk about the lyrics of this song because they can explain it so eloquently. “Greater” by MercyMe. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXI0B4iMLuU) Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Greater Is The One
John 4:4 “ Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Everytime I hear this verse a song starts playing in my head. Does that ever happen to you? I didn’t listen to Christian music growing up. We sang songs at church, but that was the extent to my exposure to Christian music and they definitely weren’t contemporary. I went to a retreat when I lived in Germany and the speaker was a Christian singer. I bought her CD’s and listened to them often. Her name is Ann Trufant. I thought it was great to have good music where the words of the song were helping me grow in my faith. I remember the first time I heard a reading at mass and recognized it from one of the songs. I had no idea that many of the lyrics were from the Bible. I was so excited. I felt like I should definitely get credit for reading the Bible when I listened to her songs.
When I joined a Christian mentoring group, the leader had put together a playlist on Spotify of upbeat really good contemporary Christian music. I instantly fell in love. There are so many great artists out there singing about God. The songs are so good. I love hearing about how much they all love God too! The reason a song came to mind when I heard this verse is because the last sentence of this verse is the chorus. This song is so good. It talks about all the ways that the world tries to bring us down, and how it doesn’t matter what they say or do, because God is living inside of us and He is greater than those living in the world. I thought I would talk about the lyrics of this song because they can explain it so eloquently. I highly recommend after you are done listening to the podcast you click on the link in the show notes for the song “Greater” by MercyMe. (Click here for video) I put the link for the lyric video so you can read along as they sing. I promise you won’t regret it. It’s an amazing song.
It begins with:
Bring your tired
And bring your shame
Bring your guilt
And bring your pain
Don't you know that's not your name
You will always be much more to me
This is so true! We often feel like we are how we feel. If we feel like a crappy parent then we take on that identity. Who doesn’t feel tired and guilty sometimes. But how many of us take that on and let the world define us by those feelings. How many of us let the world convince us that there is something wrong with us because of those feelings? God knows that we are so much more than that, so much more than we feel like we are. You are not your feelings. You are not a bad person for having your feelings. You are so much more to God.
The song goes on to say:
Every day I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I'm not right
But that's alright
'Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I'll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
God calls you redeemed too! He calls us all redeemed. Yes, we all wrestle with the voices in our head or in the world. Voices that are trying to pull us down and telling us that we are not enough. But, it’s ok because God is greater than those voices. The Holy Spirit lives in you. The one that lives in you is great than the one who is living in the world. When you are struggling, try to remember that. Remind yourself that you have conquered those living in the world because God is greater than them.
The song goes on to say:
Bring your doubts
And bring your fears
Bring your hurt
And bring your tears
There'll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous and redeemed
We can bring our doubts and our fears to Jesus. He wants us to turn to him when we are hurt. Jesus does not condemn us, he loves us just as we are. We can bring whatever we have to Jesus and he will take us in. There is nothing we can do that would make Him stop loving us. We are God’s children forever. He will always love us and protect us. We are holy, rigorous and redeemed.
Next it says:
Every time I fall
There'll be those who will call me
A mistake
Well that's okay
'Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I'll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
There are always going to be people that pounce on you when you make a mistake. People that pick on others to make themselves feel better. We live in a fallen world. We are not a perfect people, we don’t always get it right. But, when others are saying you are not enough, remember that God calls you redeemed.
The next part says:
There'll be days I lose the battle
Grace says that it doesn't matter
'Cause the cross already won the war
He's Greater, He's Greater
This is awesome. I love that this song can be real enough to admit that there are days when we lose the battle. There are days when we some of us can’t even get out of bed to fight the battle. This is ok. I love that it says “Grace says it doesn’t matter.” I love God’s grace and how freeing it can be when we learn to accept it. When we finally, finally, stop being so hard on ourselves and learn to give ourselves, and others grace, it is so freeing. It feels so good when we can mess up, or notice that we are not perfect, and yet we don’t come down hard on ourselves. When we give ourselves permission to not be perfect, life gets a whole lot easier. We can’t do this without grace. I love the next line right after that. “Cause the cross already won the war.” Oh my goodness, this is so true and yet we tend to forget it. Jesus died on the cross so our sins may be forgiven. Why is it so hard for us to accept this? Why do we let the weight of our sins carry us down. Why do we believe the world when they tell us how guilty we are and yet we don’t believe God when he tells us we are redeemed? God is greater than he who is living in the world. Keep reminding yourself of this.
The last part says:
I am learning to run freely
Understanding just how He sees me
And it makes me love Him more and more
He's Greater, He's Greater
This is what I was saying earlier. It is so freeing when you really start to understand how God sees you. Imagine what your day would be like if you weren’t worried about what people were saying or thinking about you. Imagine what it would feel like to not be constantly feeling like you were letting someone down, or listening to the criticism of others. You can have this life that you are picturing. If you can remember and come to truly believe that the one living in you is greater than the one living in the world you won’t have to listen to all the voices of the world. You have already defeated them. God is calling you redeemed. The cross has already won the war. There is no condemnation with God. He pours His grace on us, all we need to do is accept it. I have put a link to this song with the lyrics in the show notes. I hope you take a few minutes and listen to it. It is such a great song.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we know you are greater than those living in this world. Help us to believe that we are redeemed. Help us to accept your grace Lord Jesus. Help us to learn to run freely and to see ourselves as you see us. Lord, on those days when we don't win the battle help us to feel your grace and help us to win the battle the next day. Give us the strength we need Lord Jesus to keep on winning the battles. When others tell us that we're not enough help us to hear your voice inside telling us we are. When we fall down and others ridicule us help us to stand back up. We love you so much Lord and we're so very thankful for all that you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.