Heart Song

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the  journey of exploring the heart song of the soul.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering we examined the reckless love and radical forgiveness of God. This week we will continue by exploring the soul’s response to God’s love. When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”

PROMISE: 1 Corinthians 14:15 New King James Version 

What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. 

The conclusion is that our Beautiful God is wondrous and showers us with His reckless love and radical forgiveness. When we understand Who God is and respond to What He has done, our soul will respond with a prayer of thanksgiving. The words our spirit sings will  resonate with our understanding of God’s wondrous works.

PSALM: How Great Thou Art 

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art

The inspiration for the song came after Boberg witnessed a forceful storm with thunder and lightening. Moments later the sky was calm and a rainbow appeared. While the symbol of the rainbow has been used for various things, to the believer of Christ the rainbow represents the promise of God’s awesome wonder. Nature has a way of bringing our attention to God’s greatness. The stars sparkle and dance. The birds sing. The night chirps. Nature’s soul innately praises God.  Has the greatness of God ever caused you to sing a heart song?

PARABLE: 

The song writer begins the chorus with the word then. THEN implies that the song comes after something. After the storm and rainbow, nature called Boberg’s attention to the wondrous works of God. Boberg’s heart song came after he understood WHO God was, WHAT wondrous works God completed, and HOW God was always present.

Isaiah 42:10a invites us to sing unto the Lord a new song, sing His praises all over the world. The new song of The Lord comes from our heart. It comes when we turn our attention toward God. When our soul sings it is not associated with the rigor or logic of our mind. It is not concerned with proper grammar, pitch, rhythm or measures, cord progression, tempo, or stanzas. Our soul sings in response to the love of God. It freely renders an unrestrained sound to God. The sound is written from the pen of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. The lyrics are written with the ink of Jesus encounters. Our soul begins by pondering the goodness of God. Then our soul erupts with a natural melody of the Word of God hidden within our hearts.

Our Holy Spirit led soul sings:

1. With an understanding of Who God is to you (1 Corinthians 14:15).
2. About His wondrous acts (Psalm 105:2).
3. With joy to the trustworthy, secure rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1).
4. In suffering when we are held captive by our situation (Acts 16:25).

PONDER and WANDER: Ponder the question:   What is my heart song? 

Ephesians 5:19 encourages us to make melodies in our heart to the Lord. Psalms 96:1 advocates for us to sing a new song unto the Lord.  Have you ever surrendered to your soul’s desire to sing a new and spontaneous song heart song unto the Lord? If not, I encourage you to take time to allow the Holy Spirit to birth a melody unto God that reflects your understanding of WHO He is, WHAT wondrous works He has done in your life, and encompasses your appreciation for His gracious and merciful presence in your life. Don’t be concerned about how it sounds, you are singing to an audience of One, God your Father!

PRAYER: Lord God, I desire my soul to sing even when my mind can’t find the words. Help me to focus on your loving kindness and mercy that meets me with each new day. THEN I will surrender to the longing of my spirit to sing a heart song of praise. THEN I will invite the Holy Spirit to sing on my behalf. THEN I will sing with understanding. THEN I will know that everything you touch is a song.

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to thank God for His wondrous works!  Let the work of your wandering fill you with the desire to sing unto God the praise He is worthy to receive.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

PERSONAL BONUS: Heart songs don’t always come in joy. At times, like with Paul and Silas, they come in suffering. If you would like, you may take another five minutes to read about and hear one of my spontaneous heart songs.

At the age of 40 years young, on June 7, 2017, my baby sister Christine Renee Code took her last breath and went to her eternal home with Jesus. My ongoing journey with grief began. Grief is a normal process and for people experiencing normal grief, there is a time of bereavement. Gradually the feelings begin to ease and they learn to live with the loss. For me, my grief became debilitating. I could not articulate the sorrow. I could not easily recover and resume my life. Grief became my constant companion. Some days she rode quietly as a passenger of my life and allowed me to decide when I would stop to cautiously experience the sadness. Other days she took over the wheel and drove with an audacious speed toward depression. On one of those days when I was spent and consumed with sorrow, my mind, body and spirit checked into the Complicated Grief Inn. I requested a double bed, and I crawled with tears streaming down my face into the arms of Jesus. It was THEN that my soul began to sing a prayer of rescue to God.

Listen to my heart song entitled Rescue Me. 

Only the heart can sing what your mind cannot conceive and your mouth cannot say. As the Holy Spirit uttered my heart song, Jesus came to my rescue. Many other songs evolved from my surrender to my heart song. My prayer for you is that you invite Jesus into your heart and that through the power of the Holy Spirit your heart make melodies unto our Lord in joy, in sorrow, and in hope. For every thing touched by Jesus is a song.

Image attributions:
My Savior My God my Soul Sings: Photo from Pixabay with added text
How great thou art https://pixabay.com/photos/worship-singing-inspiration-church-4088561/ with added text
My soul sings of your wondrous works: https://pixabay.com/photos/concert-singer-singing-stage-2566002/ with added text
Everything you touch is a song: Photo from Beloved.org with added text