Voice of a Savior

Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise You
I just wanna praise You
You broke the chains, now I can lift my hands
And I'm gonna praise You
I'm gonna praise You

In the corners of mind
I just can't seem to find a reason to believe
That I can break free
'Cause you see I have been down for so long
Feel like all hope is gone
But as I lift my hands, I understand
That I should praise You through my circumstance

Everything that could go wrong
All went wrong at one time
So much pressure fell on me
I thought I was gonna lose my mind
But I know You wanna see
If I will hold on through these trials
But I need You to lift this load
'Cause I can't take it no more

Been through the fire and the rain
Bound in every kind of way
But God has broken every chain
So let me go

Shackles (Praise You) - Mandisa

Where do you go to to fill up the void within you? Where do you go to to find a peace that you haven't known for a long time? Where do you go to to just hear someone say 'I love you'? How far would you go to find your purpose and identity once again?

This post may be for you right now, it may not, but I believe the Lord is speaking to you as you listen to the track and read this. Friend, whoever you may be, the Lord is calling you back into His arms again. I don't know what you've been through, I don't know how you far you've ran, but one thing I do know, and that the Lord is faithful. His ears are never too dull to listen to your cries, His arms never too short to reach you. Friend, today the Savior is calling you back. Broken heart, broken life, return to the Father, He'll take you as you are.

Today I sense the Lord leading me specifically to write to 2 particular groups of people.

The first group. You are afraid to look yourself in the mirror. You are afraid to stand on the weighing scale. You are afraid to open your wardrobe, in case you find yourself not being able to fit in some of your clothes anymore. You think so lowly of yourself. You are stressed up because of how you look. You are disappointed that you can't stay 'good looking' (the way the world describes it). It is affecting your daily life, your emotions, decisions, and work. Friend, hear this. It does not matter to the Lord. Y'know, when you begin to despise yourself, you are despising God. You are blaming Him for creating an 'imperfect' you. And more importantly, you are calling God a liar, because you refute His claim that you are 'fearfully and wonderfully made'. Friend, instead of taking that position, why not let your heart be full of praise and thanksgiving? Let your heart echo that of the Psalmist David in Psalm139:14. Praise God, because it is true that if God made you, took a step back to inspect you, then declared 'Very good', you are very good! Friend, learnt to see the beauty of the Lord in your life. Learn to recognise that the Holy Spirit lives in you and that already makes you special. For your outward looks matter not to God, He's looking at your heart. And it is your heart that He sees, what then does He see? Be more concerned about that.

The second group of people I write this to is those who are going through trials at this current period of time. Recently you've been through something horrible, maybe you lost a race, maybe you received a bad grade, maybe you lost something very important to you, maybe you just made a terrible mistake. Or maybe the things in school/work have been such a strain on you. You are feeling stressed, disappointed, upset, confused, maybe you just don't know what to feel anymore (numbness). Friend, one thing to you, persevere. 'Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.' (Romans5:1-5) REJOICE IN YOUR SUFFERING, BECAUSE YOU CAN REJOICE IN THE HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD! Many times, we ask God to show us His glory, to show us His will, to reveal to us His plans for us etc. But many of us really do not know what we are praying when we pray this kind of prayer. We want to see what God has for us, but we are not prepared to do what it takes. God's plan/will/ways are sovereign and holy, and it cannot be revealed to the unholy. Therefore, in order that God might reveal to us His plans/will for us, He must first prune us of our unholiness. But many of us miss the point. We think of pruning as 'suffering', which is pardonable because it truly is painful. However, we cannot treat the pruning of our lives as something dreadful. Instead of dreading pruning, we should approach it with joy and thanksgiving because we know that God will not give us too much to bear, and because of that, we will emerge victorious, and stronger in the process. Therefore, let our attitudes this day be as such, one of rejoicing, praising the Lord in every circumstance, for we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. The ultimate goal of our suffering is hope in God. Many of us go through suffering and find it pointless because we have missed the point. Suffering, instead of making us hope and trust stronger in the Lord, caused us to drift away from God instead. We began to blame God, and decided to take things into our own hands, thinking we can control everything. Or we take a different approach, we adopt a heck-care attitude. We become numb to whatever we are going through, and in the midst of it harden our hearts. We become so deaf to how the Holy Spirit encourages/comforts us, that we think God doesn't care, and then we blame God. But this should not be so! 'When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone' (James 1:13) No one should be blaming God for his/her own suffering. Instead, one should rejoice that God, by His grace and mercy, prunes and refines us for His glory. Adopt the right attitude in trials, my friend. Life is about choices. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Choose to adopt the right attitude, make the right choices and then the Lord will be on your side. (Not that God's love is conditional, but simply because He is a Holy God, He cannot take the side of unholiness)

Friend, as you are reading this, I pray that you will allow the Lord to speak to you. I don't know about you, but I for one, choose to praise the Lord my God, the very same God who gives and takes away, Blessed Be His Name.

Some people try to listen to the bottom of a bottle
Some people try to listen to a needle in their arm
Some people try to listen to the money in their pocket
Some people try to listen to another's arms

You and I are not that different
We got a void and we're just trying to fill it up
With something that'll give just a little peace
All we want is a hand to reach to
Open arms that say I love you
We'd give anything to hear
The voice of a Savior

Some people try to find it with blind ambition
Some people try to find it where no one else has gone
Some people try to find it in the crowns of victory
Some people get defeated and lose the strength to carry on

You and I are not that different
We got a void and we're just trying to fill it up
With something that'll give just a little peace
All we want is a hand to reach to
Open arms that say I love you
We'd give anything to hear
The voice of a Savior
The voice of a Savior

Some people try to find it in the shadow of a steeple
Some people try to find it in the back row pew
Some people try to find it in the arms of Jesus
That's where I found it, how about you?

You and I are not that different
We got a void and we're just trying to fill it up
With something that'll give just a little peace
All we want is a hand to reach to
Open arms that say I love you
We'd give anything to hear
The voice of a Savior
The voice of a Savior
We'd give anything to hear
The voice of a Savior
The voice of a Savior
The voice of a Savior

Voice of a Savior - Mandisa