Connecting Time With God
March is almost one-third gone! 2023 is flying by…soon Easter will be upon us. In March I have been varying the things I do in my connecting time with God each day. A major departure for me is not reading a book of the Bible, meditating on it, praying over it, and asking God what it is He has for me that day from it. This month I have daily been reading a verse or section of Scripture and being quiet before the Lord, submitting myself to Him and asking Him to direct my mind and heart to that which He would have for me that day.
I have found myself being led to familiar passages of Scripture that have been especially meaningful to me over the years. These are not just “my top ten” passages — no, they range from a single verse in Psalm 51 to the whole last chapter of the book of Romans! One day, this month, my thoughts were directed back to Genesis chapters 1 – 5. Much could be said of what is therein contained but for the sake of time I draw your attention to Genesis 4 where we read about Cain and Abel and how Cain killed Abel in v. 8. God pronounced judgment on Cain, he moved to a different area, was married and we read a little of the family that he fathered down through at least four generations. A lot of hard-to-pronounce names are printed — names we don’t traditionally name our kids after — Irad, Mehujael, Methushael, Lamech, Jamal, and Jubal for instance. BUT, one of those names jumped out at me as I was slowly reading Genesis 4, and that name was Jubal in Genesis 4:21 because there we are told, Jubal “was the father of all who plays the harp and flute.” Many regard Jubal as the father of music. I suppose that is where we get our word “jubilation” from. (Just kidding, I don’t know that for sure, but it makes for a great story, doesn’t it??)
In any event, my mind quickly went to music. I was reminded of a recent interview I saw with songwriter and worship leader Chris Tomlin. He was being interviewed by Pastor Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL. In that interview, Chris Tomlin said “music is the quickest way to the soul.” As I pondered that I thought of so many songs from my past — hymns we sang when I was a kid — “choruses” we sang when I was a late teen and early 20-something. Full-on songs that many still called choruses because they were unlike the old hymns and even new songs released in the last year. Thanks to the day and age we live in, you can find almost any tune you want if you can remember a few words or lyrics or who sang the particular song. I have been so wonderfully blessed by remembering, finding, and singing songs from way back fifty years ago and songs I remembered from thirty and forty years ago to songs I have heard in just the past three months. For me, music is certainly one of the quickest ways to my soul — likely because I can remember where I was when I heard a particular song or worship song. Meaning from life has been attached to that particular song — be it a place, a person, or an event/circumstance that defined or transformed me.
I won’t bore you with the names of the songs or their meaning to me. My point in this column is really this: what, from the Lord, brings meaning to your life? Music might be a major thing for me — but what of you? Maybe it’s nature, snow, or a beautiful stream. Maybe it is people. Maybe it is traveling? Maybe it is silence and solitude? Whatever it is, why not ask the Lord to help you identify that thing and pursue it with great abandon for the rest of March? Ask God to help you see it, sift it, and use it for your continued growth and His Glory!
Serving Christ Together With You,
Jonathan