Psalm 104:33 (NIV) I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Once your eyes are opened to the salvation that is available to us because of what Jesus did on the Cross, you begin to truly live. Before that, the Word of God describes us as being dead in our transgressions (Ephesians 2:1). That means we were alive physically speaking but not truly living. Your spirit was dead and your soul was searching for meaning and purpose. A better word for your condition before finding true life in Christ is that you were existing. You were in survival mode. But then Christ came into your heart and everything changed. He gave you meaning and purpose and as the Word of God puts it, “He put a new song in your heart (Psalm 40:3).”

That song, if you truly are living your new life in Christ, increases in enthusiasm and intensity as you learn and experience the love of God more and more. Your heart is captured by the love that the Lord Jesus has poured into you and your desire becomes to honor Him and draw praise to Him for the rest of your life. You experience the joy and exuberance that the psalmist who wrote the words above was experiencing as he penned those words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He felt like singing praise to the God of his salvation for the rest of his days. That’s what should happen when we are following Christ as His disciples. But unfortunately, not everyone experiences that. Many become complacent and indifferent and fade away little by little until you can barely recognize that there is a born-again believer hiding out somewhere in that person’s life.

How does that happen? It happens when followers of Christ stop following Him. They usually are not even aware that they have stopped. They may still go to church, although not as consistently. They may still sing during the worship time in the service, but not from their heart. They may still read the Word of God, but only periodically. They may still love Jesus, but just not with all of their heart. This condition turns out to be worse than the condition of not knowing Jesus at all because you can convince yourself that everything must be okay since you are somewhat doing the things that you are “supposed to do.” That’s a hint that something is terribly wrong. Vibrant followers of Christ don’t do things because they are supposed to do them, but because they desire to do them. They are drawn to do them. You don’t have to try to encourage them to sing because they will sing whether you lead them in singing or not. They have a true and lasting song in their heart because of their immense gratitude for all that Jesus has done to set them free from their sins and to give them eternal life. Guard you heart so that it will not wander away from Jesus because when it does, you will lose your song. You will lose your desire to worship and praise the God who gave you life and meaning and you will begin to wither in your soul and spirit. Instead, keep the song alive in your heart by staying in communion with Jesus and by going to Him for everything and at all times. Stay close to Him in the good times and don’t get distracted in the bad times and you will have a song of praise in your heart to the Lord as long as you live!

Pastor Joey Vazquez