Is Your Life a Picnic? Try Singing!

Today Ryan, James and I attended my parents' church, and were blessed to get to hear Pastor George Toews speak. He is a great, and gifted speaker, and I miss hearing him speak. Here is the message he gave in it's full form, on his messages blog. Read it when you have some time - it truly is wonderful.

He started off by asking whether our lives were like a picnic - meaning, is everything in your life going well? He mentioned that while perusing blogs this week, he was reminded of the Spiritual warfare that continues all around us - and burdens us in our day-to-day lives. We are all struggling with something, be it work, relationships, health, and in my case, motherhood.

This launched into a discussion about warding off the evil one with songs. I've always felt that singing is a particularly great way to connect with the Spirit. I never thought about it though, as a way to ward off the evil one, and what he tries to convince me of every day.

Pastor George said, "The second great weapon at our disposal and the one I would like to focus on in this message is praise. I like what Piper says about this strategy in the battle. He writes in a sermon on this text, '…I think that the writer of this book wants to make it clear that, even though the victory belongs to God, the human means through which God gives victory is the ministry of the choir…Spiritual worship and spiritual warfare should be carried out with singing…the enemies of God are thrown into confusion by the songs of God's people. Or to put it another way, God has appointed the use of spiritual songs as an effective weapon against his archenemy Satan.'"

I'm challenging myself this week to start to sing praises when I feel down. I'm going to sing when I feel like a bad mom. I'm going to sing when I feel at the end of my rope with James. I'm going to sing when I think that I'm an annoying wife. I'm going to sing when I think I am a negligent friend. I'm just going to sing. I'm going to sing so much that Satan won't stand a chance. I'm going to sing him out of my head, and my heart. I'm going to sing him straight back down into the pit he deserves. I believe, I truly believe, that this is going to change my life...