Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

  Day 4 of playing/practicing through my song catalog. They say parents are not supposed to have a favorite child.  But we all know they do!  This song that I wrote, one of my "babies," is one of my favorites. I wish I would have kept a better record of how I was inspired to write my songs.  I wrote this one so long ago that I honestly don't remember.  But from my sentiment, I will venture to guess that I was seeking God more, wanting God more, needing God more, wanting Him to capture my heart with Himself and His love. Some things never change. I am still seeking God, wanting God, needing God, and desperately want Him to capture my heart with His love. He has done this work in my heart through the years.  But because our relationship with Christ is inexhaustible, there is always more intimacy with Him to seek.  More of our hearts that we let Him into. And though His Holy Spirit filled me the day I was born again, it is a process to allow  Him to ...

I am learning that everything that threatens to derail us, get us out of the Spirit and walking in the flesh, we can use it instead of lose it! We don't have to lose our cool, our composure, or our self-control. I know how fierece some battles can be, friends.  But the Lord of our souls has promised to always lead us in triumph!  Always!!  This is an astouding promise from our God! When I see troubles and problems and upsets from a fleshly perspective, I lose.  Every time. I am asking the Lord for His perspective on everything.  And though evil still comes at me and tries to get to me, I want to truly watch the Lord Romans 8:28 (used as a verb) every single attack that is aimed at me.  In the moment.   If I use the "heat of the battle" as an opportunity to let Christ lead me in triumph, then the enemy will back off!  Why?  Because his schemes are not working.  Oh, he will keep trying, devil that he is.  But we can keep winning,...

  Day 3!  So I sat down at my Yamaha P250 today to sing this song and memories started flooding back to me.  Memories of the time we went to a professional recording studio outside of DC with hopes of recording my first full-length album. God had other plans. So we were able to lay down some of the tracks.  But after the first day of recording, my husband and I went out to dinner.  It was a nice restaurant and I ordered the veal.  I never order veal.  Whatever possessed me to order veal that night, the Lord only knows! I ended up getting food poisoning. I was unable to go back to the studio to record.  Instead, I spent the next day crawling to the bathroom to vomit my guts out.  It was a nightmare.  I couldn't even walk, I was that weakened by it.  It was the first time in my life when I actually thought that I might die. I remember thinking, ok, Lord - if You're ready for me, if today's my day to die, I'm ok with that!   ...

I know that God has a sense of humor.  Or the ironic.  Or both. The song on my list to practice today on Day 2 of this journey, was "All is Well."  I needed my own song today to convince me of this.  I wasn't feeling that "all is well."  At all. The a/c is broken and it isn't getting fixed until tomorrow (hopefully - of course, the fix-it place made no promises!).  This has been causing me great anxiety, even though we're managing to stay comfortable because we're still getting cool air blowing out of the vents, if not reconditioned air.   Anyway, I sat down and sang, There's a state of mind Where all is well All is well I wanted to get into that state of mind but it was a battle.  I was focused on the problem instead of Jesus, in whose Presence all is always well. But I practiced nonetheless!  It's good for my self-discipline muscles. Tomorrow, "Always You" is on the docket!

Maybe you are familiar with this precious Scripture.  This is true of anyone who has been born again into new life in Christ.  This is our identity in Him.  Hidden in Christ with God. I am praying that He shows me exactly what this is in the days and weeks ahead.  For it seems that things still get to me and have a way of "knocking me off my perch," so to speak.  They bring out not the hidden life of Christ in me, but the old nature. But technically speaking, our old sin nature is dead!  It was crucified with Christ on the cross, alleluia!   So how can it still rear its ugly head now and then? It's a battle because although the sin nature has died, we are still in this flesh.  So our flesh battles against our spirit. Who will win? Good question! I believe it is up to us at any given moment who will win the battle.  We have the power to overcome our flesh, but will we take up that power and use it?   It takes effort.  It is...

Day 1 of practicing my songs in obedience to the Lord. I ended up having fun!  This is one that I wrote for the kiddies.  It's chock full of Scriptural truths and Bible characters in a catchy melody. So what I'm re-learning about obedience is this: when I obey God, though what He tells me to do may seem daunting or make no sense, I end up enjoying myself.  There may still be hard work involved, but it becomes filled with God's Presence, which equals joy, because obedience is a form of worship. The minimum time slot I have alloted to practice my song-per-day is 10 minutes.  Since most songs are around three minutes long, that's running through them approximately three times.  I set this time for myself knowing that some days are busier than others, and I may only have ten minutes on a given day. But today is Saturday!  I started practing around 9:30 in the morning.  I played from memory and also checked myself against my sheet music that I self-publishe...

The Lord has been telling me for a while now to practice my songs.  And as much as I am in the habit of obeying the Lord no matter what - here comes my confession - I have not done as He said. Why? I figure, why bother?  Who's going to hear them anyway?  I feel like Demi Lovato from her song "Anyone." "I feel stupid when I sing Nobody's listening to me Nobody's listening" But I know that God is listening.  Is that enough for me?  Do I need an audience?  Can't I just sing for the joy of singing?  Especially songs that came from my heart, soul, and spirit? I've been through so much in the past - many negative experiences that have left their mark on me.  That is not an excuse.  Just how it is.  I really have to muster up the energy to sit down at the keyboard and sing any more.   As a child, I would sit at the piano for hours and just sing and play.  What fun I had!   Of course, that was eons ago, and in between th...