Stuck in a Rut? Or Bein' in the Groove?

For the past few years now, I have awakened most mornings at “O dark 30” with a different song in my heart, aware that Zephaniah 3:17 is a real thing: “The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with joy/gladness, He will quiet you in His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” And whether the song of the day is something I heard the day before, residual glow from the Sunday service, or wherever the song came from and what prompted it, it’s generally been different every morning.

Not today, not just since Sunday,...not for the past 5 days!… has the song changed!

Every morning for the past 10 days, I wake to different places in the same song, encouraging me, reminding me, instructing me in the night, to be mindful that in all the ways God has met me where I was, I am the recipient of God’s unmerited favor, overwhelming love, gracious provision, lavish affection, pointed instruction and undeserved deliverance from everything that has happened up to this point. With the certain assurance that the best is yet to come!

Once someone who had a hard time understanding the concept being so grateful, so enthusiastic for God, that when the praise starts, the hands go up as an unfeigned response to His presence, I was literally jumping up and down in someone else’s living room for joy, my heart so full of the reality of Him in my life and what He’s done in me that I was – without note one playing from anyone’s phone – singing, “Hell lost another one! I am free! I am free, I am free! … He picked me up, He turned me around, He set my feet on solid ground, I thank the Master, I thank the Savior, I thank God!”

Today is March 3^rd. This song was played at the Manifest event I went to on February 21^st! By the end of that Saturday, even as tired as a 16 hour day can leave you, I was exhilarated by the truth of this song – and the Savior it shines on! “Because He healed my heart, He changed my name, forever free I’m not the same, I thank the Master, I thank the Savior, I thank God!” How can I even think I can contain myself with this being my heart-filling reality!?

So as I get ready to start another day, a (so far) wonderfully unplanned day to walk out what it looks like to “live from rest, not rush”, learning to abide in God’s presence with both purpose and confidence that He is “working in me to will and to work for His good pleasure”, I am looking to Jesus to show me deeper revelations as to why this song hasn’t changed yet. What do I still need to draw out of these lyrics, the music, the posture of joyous surrender that “lifts me up from the grave, even while I’m still in the body”!

“Awake O Sleeper! Arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14)!” “the LORD God has given Me the tongue of the learned (of a disciple), that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen/hear as one being taught/instructed (Isaiah 50:4).”

How then should I live? How do I know what to do in any given moment when things change so fast and there are so many options for which way to go, what paths to take? “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free, and do not become entangled again by a yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1).” Walking in the confidence that in Christ, “Hell lost another one! I am free!” and that is a cause for celebration, raised hands, jumping up and down, and joyfully remembering that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:1)!”

So hearing this same song morning by morning now for the last 10 days is not me stuck in a rut, trying unsuccessfully to escape anything, but is instead being in a life-giving groove – like a turntable needle enjoying a well-loved album – caressing each note and change of chord with everything in me, grateful that He got me outta that grave and excited to watch how He uses this joy to help others do the same!