Sing: To Relate or Celebrate in Verse

He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be astounded.
They will put their trust in the LORD. 
(Psalm 40:3 NLT)
I can hear some of you groaning, but Kel, “I don’t have a good singing voice.” Neither do I, but that doesn’t keep me from relating to God through music or singing in order to celebrate His goodness. And besides, I am not encouraging you to join the choir or compare yourself to someone else. This is just another way to add some pizzazz and emotional depth to your personal time with God.

I won’t go on and on about the benefits of music and singing, instead I will give you the list of ideas from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time. Consider them to be springboards for your next musically inspired quiet-time!

Here are some ideas that Pam suggests to enhance your musical quiet-time :

  • Pull out the lyric jacket out of a CD or cassette that you don’t normally listen to. [Or find your favorite worship lyric online.] See if you can figure out what might have been going through the lyricist’s mind or what was going on in his or her life when it was written.
  • Find a hymnal. Try to sing as many hymns as you know. List your favorites. Choose ones you’d like sung at your wedding, your baptism, your funeral or other significant events in your life. Place the list in your Bible.
  • Many hymns are based on a Scripture text. [Do a Scripture search based on words from the hymn and see how the Word might have inspired the song.]
  • Sing a praise song until you have it memorized–especially one that is straight from Scripture.
  • Try to put your favorite [Scripture] verse to a familiar tune.
  • Put on a purely instrumental recording. Have a cup of coffee or tea …while you meditate on God’s goodness in your life.
  • Read a book, such as A Hymn is Born by Clint Bonner…

    ©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam http://www.Love-wise.com
    Share a time when God used music 
    in your life to draw you closer to Him.

    Imagination: Creative Ability

     
    And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.”
    And it was so. 
    (Genesis 1:14-15 ESV)
     
     
    “Can you celebrate the unknown expanse of God’s imagination?”
    (Rachel G. Hackenberg)
     
     
     
    As I contemplated the above question, and the truth that everything belongs to God, two poem prayers flowed from my pen.
     
     
    celebrate
     
     
    stories untold
    parables unfold
     
    worlds above
    kingdoms below
     
    horizons expand
    frontiers to explore
    (borders, boundaries and limits)
     
    transport us to lands unknown
     
     
     
     
    everything belongs to God
     
    the universe
    the imagination
    the narrative
    the explanation
     
    the soul
    the seed
    the expanse
    the ground
     
    the mind
    the soil
    the thoughts
    the ideas (the toil)
     
    the body
    the fruit
    the womb
    the child
     
    the strength
    the growth
    this miracle
    called life