Psalm 103:22 “I will bless and praise the Lord with my whole heart! Let all his works throughout the earth, wherever his dominion stretches—let everything bless the Lord!” Today's episode talks about the various benefits of listening to Christian music. Praising God is a great way to grow our trust in the Lord. Music is a great way to help us praise the Lord, especially when we are in a difficult season, and we can't find too many reasons to praise the Lord. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Our Father's Love (Part 13) Why Praise Is So Important
Psalm 103:22 “I will bless and praise the Lord with my whole heart! Let all his works throughout the earth, wherever his dominion stretches—let everything bless the Lord!”
This is the last episode in this series. I have really enjoyed taking a look at this psalm and breaking it down to examine it. I have not actually spent a lot of time in the Psalms, and it was beautiful to take the time to go through Psalm 103. Today’s topic is one of my favorites. I think my top 3 topics to talk about would be praise, forgiveness, and God’s love, not necessarily in that order. These are my favorites because I think they are some of the most important. God has really been showing me over the last few years how important praise is to Him. He often gives us a word of prophecy at our prayer group that talks about how much He loves that we come together to praise Him each week.
He has also been telling me over the last few years that praise is a big part of the reason I have been able to grow in my faith so much and that I am able to trust so much. When I ask what I am doing differently, He tells me that I am praising more. I am praising God, not just when I feel like it and not just when all things are going my way. I am praising God every single day, whether it is a good day or a bad day. I actually praise Him more on a bad day sometimes because when I listen to praise music, it can help me change my mood.
If you have not discovered any really good praise music, I recommend you go to Spotify and search through Christian music. My mentor, Pamela Crim, put together an awesome playlist called The Big Life Mornings playlist. It is a public playlist on Spotify, and if you type Big Life Mornings playlist into the search function, it will come up. It has a yellow background with someone walking in red shoes. Some of my favorite artists, in case you are not into playlists, are for King and Country, Lauren Daigle, Elevation Worship, Phil Wickham, TobyMac, Cory Asbury, and so many more of the artists that are on that playlist. There are several reasons that I recommend you find some great Christian music that you like.
First, listening to Christian music has helped me learn even more how much God loves me. I have included some of my favorite songs in various episodes over the years. However, if you have not heard the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury, you are really missing out. If you do not do Spotify, you can check out YouTube as well. There is actually a playlist on my channel, WalkBodlyWithJesus, on YouTube that is called Prayer Group, and that is a great list of praise songs. It would be a great place to start. Whether you are on Spotify or YouTube, you can save songs to a playlist, and then you can listen to that playlist whenever you need to.
Another reason I recommend you find some good Christian music is because it can change your mood or your focus. Anytime we are anxious, angry, scared, mad, frustrated, or any other feeling, it is because of the story we are telling ourselves. If we are anxious, we are probably focusing on what may or may not happen. If we are angry or frustrated, we might be looking at a situation we can’t change. Listening to this music can help shift our focus from our problems, our worries, and our situation to our God. There is a saying that says that instead of looking at how big our problems are, we can focus on how big our God is. Music can help us do this. If you are listening to songs about how God is a miracle worker and a way-maker, it shifts your focus and helps you praise God in tough times.
A third reason I recommend listening to praise music is because it fills your head with God. God will be on your mind more because the things you listen to are the thoughts that will be in your head. Have you ever noticed that when you hang around someone a lot, you start to talk like them? This is because you spend so much time with them, and you are constantly hearing how they talk, so your brain picks it up. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what they are saying. When I first learned this, I was a bit discouraged because the people in my house, with whom I spent the most time, were very negative and used very bad language. I did not want to start talking like they did. I needed to figure out a way to surround myself with different voices. This is when I started to listen to Christian podcasts and was able to find more Christian music. Imagine if you are listening to songs each day that talk about how much God loves us, how much He forgives us, and that talk about who God is. If you are hearing this over and over again, these will be the thoughts that fill your mind, and these will be the thoughts that come to your mind in times of trouble.
I feel I could go on and on about why I love listening to praise music. However, I will end with this last point. Praising God helps us become more grateful people. I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like we have much reason to praise God. It is not as if my life has been perfect over these last few years, and so that is why I have been able to praise God. I have had some really difficult times over these past few years, actually over the past 20 years. There have been lots of ups and downs in my marriage and in my parenting. My kids have really struggled over the years, and there have been several times in the last six years that I could have gotten really depressed and lost hope. However, I didn’t, and I truly believe it was because I have learned to praise God even in the hard times. I was able to do this because there are so many songs out there about people who have made it through really dark times, and God brought them through to the other side. I was able to do this because the thoughts in my mind from constantly listening to praise music are that God is there for me, He will always be there for me, and He can make a way where there is no way.
God is so good. He is there for us in good times and in bad times. There is always a reason to praise Him. When we are in a tough time, and we can’t find a reason, we can look back to all the times He has provided for us in the past. We can look forward to all the good things He will bring from this hard time. We can look at all the beauty around us and praise Him for that. You don’t have to praise God for your situation, you can praise Him for other things. If you want to, you can praise Him for the good that will come from your situation at a later date because we know God can use all things for our good. (Romans 8:28) I challenge all of you to begin to praise God more, and then let me know if you find that your trust in Him is also growing. I know it did for me, and I know I am not the only one. It can help you trust more too. If you are in a season where praising God seems too difficult because of your circumstances, then find some good Christian music to listen to and let them praise God for you while you listen. It will change your life, I am sure of it.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, I ask that each person listen and find some music that praises you that they really like. There are so many different genres of Christian music out there, and I pray each person who listens finds the ones that make their heart happy. Lord, I pray they find songs that fill their soul. I pray this music helps us to praise you when we don’t feel we can. I pray this music helps us to shift our focus from our problems to you and how big you are. Lord, help us to find that music that speaks to our hearts, minds, and souls. We want to praise you, Lord. Please show us how. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s word of prophecy from our prayer group is: “My love conquered death for all of you. I laid my life down out of this tremendous love that I have for each and every one of you. You are so precious to me. You have no idea how precious you are. You cannot fathom to what depths I would go for each and every one of you. Please remember that I love you through all things. I am with you. You have a line that stretches to my heart and cannot be broken. It is a fishing line, and it cannot be broken. I am on one end, and you are on the other. I love you all. I love you all. My passion was very difficult. I suffered greatly. But I did it for each and every one of you, and I will not see you snatched from me. I love you.”