Hang In There

Do you ever hear a song that just immediately makes you feel like you can get over whatever mountain is currently standing in your way?  I do, and I play the heck out of the song.  This is just one reason I love music.  It's inspiring and healing.  Sometimes all you need is a good chorus to pull you out of your current funk. It helps when the words you need to hear are sung with a voice like an angel.

I have two songs currently on repeat right now.  They have very similar messages:  Overcoming the trouble you are in at the moment and allowing yourself to rely on someone else for a little while.  I have realized more in these last four months just how much I really need God and how much I really need the people that He has placed in my life.

The first song is "I Won't Let You Go" by James Morrison.  His voice is so amazing that he could literally be singing about ketchup and I would think it is inspiring. I love all of the words but there are a few parts that are definitely my favorite:

When it's black

Take a little time to hold yourself.

Take a little time to feel around before it's gone.

If there's love just feel it.

And if there's life, well see it 

This is not time to be alone, alone yeah.

I won't let you go.

Say those words 

Say those words like there's nothing else

Close your eyes and you might believe

That there is some way out

Open up 

Open up your heart to me now

Let it all come pouring out

There's nothing I can't take. 

It's my favorite thing when a "secular" song speaks to me about my relationship with Christ.  When I listen to "I Won't Let You Go" I am constantly reminded of how He won't let us go and how He longs to be the one to take on all of our burdens whether it's our job, a printer malfunctioning, a relationship failing, or a death in the family.  He just wants us to open up to Him and give Him our heart.  We are the ones that let go, not Him. 

The other song that has been on repeat is actually one of those rare Christian radio songs that I enjoy.  I heard it yesterday after a pleasing day at work.  I had a  t e r r i b l e  work week last week and so after my pleasant day this song just really spoke to me.  It is called "Rise" by Shawn McDonald and here are a few of my favorite lines:

Yes I will rise

Out of these ashes rise

From this trouble I have found 

And this rubble on the ground

I will rise

Cause He who is in me

Is greater than I will ever be

And I will rise

Well I keep on coming to this place 

That I don't know quite how to face

So I lay down my life in hopes to die

That somehow I might rise

This song reminds me that sometimes the troubles we face are often just stepping stones to a bigger and better picture that God has in mind.  The words in this song make me think of a passage in Romans Chapter 8 which says, "But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.  So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."  (Romans 8:9-14)

Hang in there; whatever you are going through.  

Here are the videos if you would like to give them a listen.

Xoxo, 

Nicole