Sacred love songs must remain sacred love songs. They lose their beauty the moment
they go beyond being expressions of love to imply literal doctrine truths.
For example, when Paul and Silas prayed and
sang to God in the Philippian jail (Act 16:24-26), some pastors say the
resultant earthquake was because God was so pleased that He began to DANCE.
That statement is, of course, tongue-in-cheek – a sort of theological poetic
license if you will. However, some Christians take it literally, and often
assay to MOVE God through their
praise and worship.
And one way they try to move Him is by chanting
His names and titles. In fact, some will not consider your prayer legitimate if
you do not begin by rolling out the “You
are Jehovah jireh, Jehovah shalom, Jehovah tsidkennu ….” thing. (Some
venture as much as to call Him by obscure Hebrew terms as a display of their
knowledge of the intricate names of God).
Again, this practice is a carryover from our
ancient tradition of adulating and flattering our kings and brave warrior
lords. While this is a beautiful contribution of our culture to the worship of
the true King of Kings, we mustn’t forget that this ‘King’ we worship is not
like our human Obas and Emirs who need to be sweet-talked in
order for them to act on our behalf.
The unfortunate phrase, “WHEN PRAYER FAILS, SWITCH TO PRAISE” is premised on this flawed
opinion of God’s nature. God is not an idol or a man to be manipulated; and God
is too big to be flattered.
Nevertheless, if we really want to impress God
by chanting His names; there’s one name of His that I know is guaranteed to get
His attention. It’s the only title of His that He actually had to ‘earn’ – and
at great expense too. It’s the unique name His most Beloved Son called Him
while He was on earth. That beautiful name is “FATHER”.
Not anyone can call Him that. It took the
sacrifice of His beloved Son on the Cross to make that relationship possible
(Jn 1:12; Gal 3:26, 1Jn 3:1). So, each time we call Him “Father” – with
understanding – we show to Him that we appreciate His boundless love for us and
the great effort He took to make us His children.
O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt
His NAME together. – Ps 34:3
AMEN.
More Blessings await
you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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