Spoken Word: Rejoice
This is the third in the “spoken word” series, there are more to come. But, this one is special to me. It is where I started to understand what it means to truly count it all joy, to be able to see God in the midst of everything I had been walking through, experiencing His healing, His love, and His heart for me. It was a journey and let’s be real still is and yet it is worth it; to stand in the midst of a symphony of praise to the One who is most worthy of everything. For He takes the fragments and makes the most beautiful vessel, creating something new and glorious not for my own sake, but for His glory. And what better way to share then through recalling of who God is and what He has done through everything!?!
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, God with us! God with us! How can I not stand here and exclaim the highest praises to you? Rejoice oh my soul with all that is within me, for He is here!
My soul, again I’ll say rejoice. Rejoice in hardship, in pain, in triumph, in victory, in questions, in wonderment, in the thrills and spills of the day.
Sing praise my soul, even when it may not come and it feels a bit forced and convoluted. But to choose to rejoice in the midst of suffering is how my eyes will be drawn from the waves and to your face. Through joy my heart will rise above the circumstance to bow down so it is above every other thought or feeling except to yours.
Sing my soul, yes sing my soul and let down your walls for it is time to look up!
And in the middle of it I begin to realize that this is what joy looks like in the trial that it is in the weaknesses and the struggle that you sustain me and your right hand upholds me. The praise that seemed just faint and broken now has become one of exclamation!
Tune my heart to sing thy praise
Prone to wander Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
But here’s my heart Lord take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.
Yes this wandering heart, that likes to go to and fro. Being swayed side to side as if on a rocking boat, emotions steering and trying to be the captain of the ship. But, I tell it steady...steady...as the rhythmic hums of your heartbeat draw me in and pull me closer. Because your love is so much stronger than anything I’ve faced and I want to know your heart more and more.
To rejoice is to know you.
And to know you is to understand you.
And to understand you is to trust you.
For you are for me and not against me. My hope and future secure. Because your rod and your staff they comfort me. You draw me out and draw near.
Because there is no place I would rather be then right here in your love and in your arms.
Yes your love that is enduring, unchanging and never shifty, leads me, guides me, and protects me. And so even in the middle of the uncertainty, when I want to actually take control I stop and say: Again rejoice in God always, again I will say rejoice, for He is at hand!
For He is worthy of it all,
you are worthy of it all.
For to you are all things and
from you are all things and you
deserve the glory!
