Fields United Methodist Church

Jesus Along the Way: Words of Grace and Hope.                         Pastor Tom Joyce

September 10, 2020

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”  Psalm 69:30

Music has a way of soothing the soul. Have you ever noticed how certain pieces of music reminds you of certain events? For me, the song, “Good morning Jesus, good morning Lord,” reminds me of the people in Liberia that sang those words with joyful hearts and with tears of joy at the beginning of every worship. It was praise to the One who created them and redeemed them through Jesus the Christ. We give praise to God every time we offer worship in our singing; the “joyful noise” is our souls being open and ready to accept the grace and power of God in our lives. I am an early morning walker and during my walks I pray, continuously. For some reason, during times of most fervent prayer, I just feel like singing, and singing some more. We offer praise to God when we pray since prayer acknowledges we need God and that our lives are certainly incomplete without a deep and abiding relationship with God that begins with deep and abiding prayer. Singing praise to God is your response to God who through our Lord Jesus Christ promises to be with you always, “even to the end of the age.” Thanksgiving is your witness of faith and trust you have in Jesus. God is “magnified” in thanksgiving since the very act of giving thanks proclaims you have accepted a gift that can never be taken away and has set you free to live a transformed life wallowing in grace upon grace, upon grace. You may not be able to sing a note, but you can still sing praise; you may not fully understand all that you have received from God or why, but you can still offer thanksgiving to the One who “neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Your Lord is with you along the way for the simple fact that you are loved.  Give praise and thanksgiving to God; it not only “praises” and “magnifies” God, it will give rest “to your weary soul.”

Rev. Tom Joyce