How Great is My God!

So, today, I have decided to write about a couple of things that God has truly blessed me with thinking about. Specifically, things that God chose to really lay on my heart, and these things He showed to me through lines from a couple of hymns, while singing for my fourth year in my choir. God has used music and lyrics to reach my life in wonderful ways. He uses them to uplift, encourage, and comfort me, but He also has used them to reveal to me some things about how wonderful He truly is! Often times, I know what lyrics are saying, I understand them -- I understand the message that is intended to reach people through those lyrics. But there are times, like these, when God really just places certain lines on my heart. Not only to know what they are saying, but truly take those lines to heart and actually get all that I can, for God's glory, out of those particular lines.

The lines that really just "got me" the most, the lines that I felt I really must write about, are taken out of two pretty well known hymns: "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" and "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." The line from, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" that really got to me the most is the following:

"Behold the Man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulders; ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished; His dying breath has brought me life -- I know that it is finished."

The line from "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" that really got to me the most is the following:

"Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also
The body they may kill;
God's truth abideth still!"

Those lines from those amazing hymns just truly got to my heart. More so the line from "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." When I think about that line, the one thought that just comes to my mind is, "Wow." It was my sin upon my Savior's shoulders; it was my sin that held Him, Holy and True, to the cross. Yes, I have always known that, but never did it hit me as hard as it did when I was singing those lines in that hymn -- I broke down in tears. Right in the middle of singing. My heart was overwhelmed. It just hit me right then and there -- the reality of what Jesus Christ did for me, who truly deserves nothing. It hit me in such a way that it never has before. It was overall a blessing. It truly just brings me to my knees in complete and total love for my Savior -- Who gave His life for my wrongs.

1 John 4:9-10 says,
"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

What amazing verses are those! What greater love is there than that of the love God has for us? What greater love is there than that what is portrayed to us, by our Savior, Who died for our sins? There is no greater love. None at all. God's love is true love -- the Love that we all want and desperately need! We are not deserving, yet we receive that Love. I truly cannot even comprehend that thought fully! But it brings me to tears! I am overwhelmed with love for my Savior, Who chose to love me; to die for me, so that I can in turn love Him! My prayer is that He would help me love Him to the fullest -- that I may love him as much as I humanly can -- that my love for Him may remain the complete and total center of my life!

When I think about the lines in "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," I am humbled before my God. My complete and total desire is to focus on Him alone, and keep Him the center and focus of my life (which I fail miserably at, at times). He loves me, He died for me -- do I not owe Him my life, my entire being? Am I willing to let goods, my kindred, even this mortal life go? Can I do that? Does not my God deserve my life and everything I am? You better believe it! He deserves everything. He deserves my time, my praise, my prayer, my love for Him -- everything. What should I let go of? I should let go of all things; all earthly things -- even my very life that I am living. That is not something that is easy to grasp. But it is true!

I am just coming back from taking a little over a week long fast from the computer, and I gave the time off of it to my God. It was not easy letting go of a very great pleasure for just a week's time. Do I think that it was a blessing? Yes. Can I do it again? You bet I can! But this is only letting go of a very small pleasure. Could I let go of my life for His glory? Could I let go just like all of the other God-fearing men and women who were killed because of their love for Christ Jesus and for the furthering of His kingdom? Could I really and truly do that? I very firmly, in my heart, believe that I can. But only with God's strength, with His Mighty Fortress. I do believe that I could die for the cause of Christ today, tomorrow, in a week, in a month, a year, or years from now. But only through His strength could I do so. How little are the things that we let go of! How little it was to fast from the computer for a week, yet how difficult! It was so difficult! We must learn to let go of the small things before we can ever even think of letting go of the big!

These are the things that God layed on my heart. My God is great! He is King! He owns my life!

Soli Deo Gloria!