Exodus chapter 15
I often sing in the car. I also tend to sing when I'm when I'm doing chores around the house. When I'm singing I do so by singing along with some of my favorite music.
When do you sing?
Just as there are lots of different kinds of songs, there are just as many reasons to sing. There are sad songs; songs that help us to lament about loss and grief. There are happy songs; songs that allow us to let out joy and love. What have you been singing lately?
Songs that are sung with God in mind can be all of these, but they differ in one way. No matter whether they are songs of sad times of of happy times, songs about God are always thankful. Think about some of your favorite Christian hymns or songs. They are all thankful to God for something. Amazing grace, for instance, is thankful to God for "saving a wretch like me". Or, How Great Thou Art is a song that literally is about singing to God with thankfulness. Whatever the song, if it's a song directed toward God then its going to be a song that is thankful in substance.
So, what are you thankful for these days? Remember in the story Peter Pan, when Peter taught the kids to fly by telling them to think a happy thought? Well, Make a short list of the things that make you say thank you to God, and you'll have a list of happy thoughts. They may not make you fly, but singing might just allow your soul to defy a little bit of the gravity in your life. Your reasons to be thankful to God are reasons worth singing.
In our reading for today, the Israelites have just made it safely across the Red Sea. God has saved them from Pharaoh's army and has freed them from slavery. With thankful hearts for all that God has done, they sing. Having lived through the miraculous events of their freedom and having received such amazing grace as this, how could they keep from singing.
Likewise, the reasons in which you are thankful to God today; these are the reasons for which Jesus died for you. Jesus died so that you would have life, and have it abundantly both now and into eternity. With Jesus' gift of life and grace given freely to us by faith, how can we keep from singing.
Lord God, when trouble comes my way remind me of the many things for which I am thankful to you. With your grace and promise of eternal life, may I sing with a thankful heart through everything. In Jesus' name. Amen
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