I have a request for all my gospel-centered blog friends. Our church is having a women's retreat this weekend and I am supposed to be leading the ladies in a couple of worship songs before each session. The main sessions are going to be Kay Arthur videos about "The Key to Handling Stress" from Philippians 2. So I want to go with that theme and choose songs that relate to handling stress. I want to do this with a gospel-centered perspective...so my questions are:
1) How would you define/describe a gospel-centered response to stress?
2) Can you think of any hymns or contemporary songs with lyrics that speak of this in some way?
I am still somewhat new at this whole applying-the-gospel-to-every-aspect of life thing. So I would love your input :) Incidentally, as I typed this post, God brought to mind something I read from Piper a while back which I think applies here...but I'll save that for another post and wait to see what kind of response I get.
Please comment below!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
A few songs that come to mind are "In Christ Alone" and "When Peace Like a River" and a newer one, "You Never Let Go" (I'm not sure that's the title, but that's the chorus) The last one is sung by Matt Redman, I think. I hope this helps. You will be a wonderful song leader for this. I miss you dearly.
"When upon Life's Billows"
"Blessed Assurance"
"Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing"
I'll try to think of some others as well. Personally for me almost every hymn works as they focus our attention on the mightiness of Christ, which triumphs over all circumstance.
"Surrender" by James Marc (Vineyard)
"It is Well With My Soul"
That's all I can think of at the moment....but ditto to what Kat said - stress seems to dissipate when I focus on the greatness of Jesus rather than on my circumstances.
Love you girl!
thanks for the reminder, Angela. fear of (wo)man has long been a struggle for me. would appreciate a prayer for me on Friday night if any of you think of it!
The hymn "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus" (just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord)...might be a good song, but not so new...
A gospel centered response to stress is this:
First of all, not doing anything I believe to not to be the will of God...and in doing those things I believe to be His will, being confident that He will supply all that I need to accomplish it, and that I need only be faithful...that the outcome is His doing....believing that all which comes my way is part of the curriculum and accepting my assignment with grace and the knowledge that He will enable me and give me more grace as needed...and when frustration comes when under duress, recognizing that any "doubt" that enters my thinking comes from the enemy and must be resisted by practicing spiritual warfare.
As Elisabeth Elliot says, we are to cast our cares on Him and keep confidence in Him, but we more often cast away our confidence and keep our cares....
Post a Comment