Melodic Mondays
Those of you who know me know that I love music even though I am not musical myself. I listen to good music as often as I can. It is beneficial to the brain, valuable to the vocabulary, and strengthening to the soul. Isaiah 12:2-3 is a lovely passage that includes this soaring statement of surety: “The Lord JEHOVAH [YAHWEH] is my strength and my song.” This could be translated, “God is my mountaintop and my music.” Yes, He is! Each Monday, I want to study this subject and suggest a song to listen to. Anyone reading this devotional has easy access to any song. (I am an exception because I do not go on a computer or other information device.) If you do not like my suggestion (and we all have different tastes), you can think of or search for one that speaks to you. Then, it can become a source of encouragement throughout the week.
It is all too easy for Christians to be discouraged by personal struggles, especially a lack of spiritual growth (whether real or perceived). Larger circumstances can seem to swallow us up, as well (for example, the last four years in our beloved nation). Elijah, a truly outstanding man of God, felt alone in his faith and abandoned by God: “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested that he might die; and said, ‘It is enough, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers” (I Kings 19:4). Later, he lamented, “I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (I Kings 19:14c). Elijah was wrong, for God still had 7,000 faithful followers in Israel (verse 18). Also, Elijah never did die, instead being taken directly to heaven when his work was complete (II Kings 2). A new song that explores the Christian’s similar feelings of failure is “God Does,” by the Red Clay Strays (a fine name for a band from Alabama).