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Do you ever get tired of the music you listen to?
Do you find yourself listening to praise and worship songs from years ago? Have you lost your motivation to worship perhaps? Tired of the same old songs over and over again…
I found myself in this very place a few months ago. I had put together a playlist of some great worship songs a few years ago. It is on the IPod in our ensuite bathroom – for listening in the shower. It’s on my other IPod on a portable docking system – for listening on the patio, at the pool, in the boat, working in the garage, or anywhere else appropriate.
I also have the playlist on my IPhone for listening in the car and on our home stereo system. It was fabulous and served to lift my heart in praise and worship all over the place. However, it began to get stale. I had been singing the same songs for a few years and began to get less and less motivated to engage with a heart of worship.
It was time to sing a new song.
I realized I had the choice to slowly lose motivation to worship, or further engage and sing a new song – engage in new songs that glorify God. Not that there was anything wrong with the old songs. They were anointed songs, but I had become a little dull to their significance and power.
Scripture speaks about the need to sing a new song – songs that are a fresh expression of the glory and goodness of God. Songs that are a fresh representation of our heart toward the Lord.
It is important we understand the power of praise and worship. This isn’t simply some cute sing-song of sorts we do on Sundays. Praise and worship is not about singing sentimental campfire songs that make us feel better. The reality is, we were created for worship. It is an act of surrender, submission and adoration. Peter tells us in I Peter 2:9 that we are created to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into God’s wonderful light.
There is a profound power in worship. In fact, scripture tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people. When we choose to praise and worship God with open, engaged hearts we experience breakthrough, freedom, deliverance, revelation, healing and all manner of other benefits as we connect with God and get our eyes off ourselves and onto Him.
Praise and worship is a choice.
We can choose to keep our eyes on ourselves and focus on our own issues and shortcomings, or we can look to God, offer our hearts to Him and be transformed by His presence and power in the midst of praise and worship.
Back to singing a new song: I needed some input to help me discover some new music, so I asked my son Benjamin for help. Wow, he plugged me into some great music I was totally unaware of. I simply searched for the songs and artists on ITunes he told me about, and downloaded them into a new playlist.
My new playlist is awesome. It has breathed new life into my everyday worship. I even added in some cutting edge Christian music from the 70’s – retro is new again 35 years later.
Bethel Music, Keith Green, Andrae Crouch, Chris Tomlin, John Mark McMillan, Will Regan and United Pursuit, Second Chapter of Acts, Jesus Culture – all great new (some very old/retro) songs for me. However, I gotta say that my greatest discovery has been Rend Collective. Wow – their music is profound. There is an underlying tone of joy in their music that is transcendent.
My intent here is not to promote any particular band or artist, but simply to awaken our hearts to the need to sing a new song to the Lord. To discover the power of praise and worship by wholeheartedly engaging with artists who have been gifted and called to facilitate and inspire praise and worship in God’s people.
Let’s choose to continually sing a new song of praise and worship to God – to give Him the glory due His name. And in the midst of our surrender, submission and adoration we, in turn, are transformed by His great love.
Psalm 96:1-4
“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods.”
Revelation 19:5
“Then a voice came from the throne, saying: ‘Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both great and small!’”
Hebrews13:15
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.”
Psalm 29:2
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.”