THURSDAY April 22, 2010

PRAISE THE FATHER, PRAISE THE SON (Chris Tomlin)

Oh Sovereign God, O matchless King

The saints adore, the angels sing

And far before the throne of Grace

To You belongs the highest praise

These sufferings, this passing tide,

Under Your wings I will abide

And every enemy shall flee,

You are my hope in victory

Praise the Father, praise the Son,

Praise the Spirit three in one

Clothed in power and in grace

The Name above all other names

To the valley  for my soul,

the great descent has made me whole

Your word my heart has welcomed home

Now peace like water ever flows

Yours is the kingdom, Yours is the power

Yours is the glory, forever

Yours is the Kingdome, Yours is the power

Yours is the glory, forever

You are the rock on which I stand.  I praise You Father, I praise You Son, I praise You, Holy Spirit.  These sufferings, this passing tide, under Your wings I will abide.  Good Morning, Lord Jesus.  You are my hope in victory.  I praise You, I worship You.  I am grateful that You are my Lord and Savior.  This passing tide.  That phrase resonates in my soul.  Tides go in and out.  They don’t stay in one position…so I have to reconcile that this tide that we are riding on right now won’t last forever.  It is passing.  Under Your wings I will abide.  You are my hope and victory.  I will Praise You, I will worship You, I will sit at Your feet, turn off all other distractions and learn Your truths. 

I am going to put a story that I read yesterday into a condensed version.  Jeremiah 5:22 says…”I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.  The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.”  The ocean would say to the sand, Little sand, do you really think you can stop me?  The sand would say to the sea, “listen here big, bad, ocean it doesn’t matter how little I am, it matters that God Almighty has decreed me as a boundary that you cannot cross.  The sea roars, it creates a huge storm and the waves roll past the sand.  It says to the sand, see, I have crossed, I have shown you the power that I have, the storm has created havoc over you.  All the grains of the sand begin to sing in unison, in peace, Guess what Mr. Sea, You’ve got to go back now.  The wind will calm down, the waves will retreat.  Did that happen because the sand is more powerful, did it happen because the sand is bigger?  No.  It happened because God decreed it.  He said this is what will happen.  It had the authority of the Words of God Almighty.

The more I seek You, the more I find You.  The more I find You, the more I love You.  God has decreed certain things over my life.  They will happen because God Almighty has said it will happen.  My circumstances, my flesh will not determine the direction of my life.  I will seek You, today, Lord Jesus.  I will turn off the computer, I will walk outside and breathe in the fresh breath of Your Spirit as It directs my steps.  Your love and concern for me is overwhelming.  I will not listen to the negative, give up kind of talking.  I will apply the Words of God Almighty in my actions and attitudes.  If God can cause a grain of sand to have the authority to stop a huge, powerful ocean to stop, I can stop the actions of the powerful storm against little old me to “go back now”.  With the Words of God over me and in me, I can tell the storms “to go back NOW”.  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, Holy, Holy is He.  I will sing a new song to Him.  I will declare that I am a bully against the storm.  As soon as the storm is over, as soon as the wind quits blowing, the ocean retreats to its normal boundaries.  The sand has declared its boundaries.  This passing tide has subsided.  Today I am

Holding back the raging tide,

Mary Ann