The Rest of the Story

“How precious it is, Lord, to realize that You are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day Your thoughts turn to me. And when I waken in the morning, You are still thinking of me!”—Psalm 139:17-18, Living Bible

Sometimes, an old song will come out of nowhere, and you remember every word of it and where you were when you sang it, and the (usually good) memories associated with it. But sometimes, "out of nowhere" is really meant for somewhere and in fact for right now and for you, and for a good and needed Word at just the right time.

For such a week as this, one like:

"The Lord thy God (echo, echo) in the midst of thee (echo, echo), is mighty, is mighty..."

Simple comfort food from the Book of Zephaniah. Fully nourishing. Blessed assurance. Right?

And yet, hardly fluff and Christian-lite. Because what made this "out of nowhere" just-in-time song so powerful is the rest of the story, and the story for our lives:

It was written in the midst of chaos...

"Yet God remains righteous in her midst, untouched by the evil. He stays at it, day after day, meting out justice. At evening he’s still at it, strong as ever."

—Zephaniah 3:5

...It is good to know, as the Word promises, that God is with us. Better still to realize that He's even more than that. That when the world is in turmoil, when our day, our week, our life gets nuts, when some things just don’t make sense, and even during a restless night sleep filled with crazy dreams because your day was on overload, God is not just "with us" out there somewhere or observing from the grandstand of Heaven.

He is "still at it, strong as ever," actively, mightily, lovingly "with us" in the midst of it all.

"Having the reality of God's presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually."—Oswald Chambers

Where Thankfulness Wins

"In some of the best worship songs, we bring our praises to God yet at the same time also end up preaching to ourselves." - Matt Redman

Sometimes, for no reason at all, you “wake up on the wrong side of the bed.”

You can drag that sorry self throughout your day,

Or you can grab your coffee and do something outrageous, something out of the box:

Not read your daily devotional first.

Not try to dig into the Word first when your mind is off-kilter.

Definitely not scroll your social media and news headlines first.

But first, awaken the dawn.

Put on the tunes and sing.

Put the “wrong side of the bed” in its rightful place.

Whatever is True and Love and full of Hope, sing it like you don’t care if anyone is listening.

Because the best Sunday morning vitamin, or for any other day of the week

Is not always the one that is written

But the one that is first played or cranked up and sung.

Thankfulness wins every time...

“My heart is committed, O God:

    I will sing;

I will sing praises with great affection

    and pledge my whole soul to the singing.

Wake up the harp and lyre, and strum the strings;

    I will stir the sleepy dawn from slumber!

I will stand and offer You my thanks, Eternal One, in the presence of others;

    I will sing of Your greatness among the nations no matter where I am.

For Your amazing love soars overhead far into the heavens;

    Your truth rises up to the clouds

    where passing light bends.

O God, that You would be lifted up above the heavens in the hearts of Your people

    until the whole earth knows Your glory.”—Psalm 108:1-5, The Voice