Music

I really love music, and I feel that it is one of the ways that God continues to speak to us. At the times when I am feeling really close to God, my time in worship always seems to be a conversation, I will saying something to Him and He will answer with the song. So, at any given time, I usually have some song that has been on my mind recently that has been my main prayer or praise or reminder. Right now, it is Good Father, but recently, these songs have been really clearly outlining my past year and I just want to walk through that.
About this time last year, my prayer was "Oceans" that God would lead me to a place where my trust is without borders, that He would call me deeper than I would ever go on my own. This prayer was answered recently when all of my college decisions happened, and I ended up choosing to go to the University of South Carolina next year. The cool thing about choosing USC over Tech is that at Tech I think I would have had my one comfortable way of doing things and I wouldn't be open to following Him beyond my borders. I already knew which sorority I wanted to be in, who I wanted to be friends with, and where I would want to buy ice cream. And because of these things I would have set up the boundaries of my life and not wanted to reach past them. But with going to USC, everything will be new, I won't have anyway to have borders of my life already set up, so the Spirit really is leading me to where my trust can be borderless and I can spend time letting my faith grow stronger. This song has turned from a prayer that God will act to a praise because I have seen Him be faithful to act.
Another song that Has made a similar move from prayer to praise is "Whom Shall I Fear?". The bridge of this song was my prayer of a while when I was completely unsure of what God's plan for my next year looked like. It says "Nothing formed against me shall stand, You hold the whole world in Your hands, and I'm holding on to Your promises, You are faithful." I was desperately holding on to God's promise of a plan for my life, and that He works all things to the good of those who love Him. With His timing on all of my college decisions, instead of feeling downcast and rejected about going to South Carolina, He gave me the time from January to March to fall in love with the school until it really did become my first choice. Now these lyrics are my praise that God is faithful and that I can hold on to His promises because He fulfills them.
This brings us to "Good Father". It doesn't matter how many times I hear this song, it never grows old. It even frequently has something new for me to discover. I love how simply it tells the relationship and identity of God and ourselves: He is the Good Father, and we are loved by Him. I am one loved by the Good Father. That's exactly it. That's our God. Clearly there is so much more to it than that, but at its absolute most basic, that is what it is. Most recently, the very last verse of this song has been stuck in my head. "Love so undeniable I can hardly speak, peace so unexplainable I can hardly think, yet You call me deeper still into love." God has shown me His love in really sound and sure ways and given me a peace that doesn't even make sense. But even with all of this, He is continuing to call me deeper, and that is just beyond belief.