Give Me Words to Speak

Last night, I'm sitting in a Zaxby's across the street from my apartment eating a wonderful kickin' chicken sandwich meal -- it's the cheapest thing they have that will fill me up -- and I notice that this Zaxby's is playing Christian radio over their speakers. This was strange to me, but since I don't really like Christian radio, I just continued to ignore it because I was on my way to go see Iron Man** with a friend of mine.

**Side note - If you haven't seen Iron Man, your life has amounted to nothing so far. GO SEE IT!

Anyway, I was killing time before the movie thinking about the Braves and other random things that came through my head, as this song came on in the background. Give Me Words to Speak by Aaron Shust. It is rapidly climbing the Christian radio charts (I know, what an accomplishment....), and for the first time, I actually agree with Christian listeners on this one. This may be one of the best written songs by a Christian writer I've heard in a while, and it hit me on two different levels.

The first part of my heart that this song struck is from the second verse...

Every night, every day, I find that I have nothing I can say
So I stand here in silence, awaiting Your guidance
I’m wanting only Your voice to be heard
Let em be Your Words

These words made me think about worship. No, not the singing we do on stage. Worship. Being a living sacrifice. So many times, we think we know exactly what to say in every situation life presents to us. We think that no matter the circumstances, we have the solution... well, at least I think this way. How amazing would a life be if it were lived like this verse claims? Standing in SILENCE, awaiting GUIDANCE. So many times it's our agenda, not God's agenda that gets put into place in our lives, and we constantly spread our imperfect voices instead of God's perfect voice. I want to be a living sacrifice for God... I want to live my life every day seeking his guidance and letting HIS words be heard, not mine. I pray the same for all of you as well.

The second part that hit me hard about this song was in the chorus...

Give me Words to speak
Don’t let my Spirit sleep
Cause I can’t think of anything worth saying
But I know that I owe You my life

Now, granted, these words could be taken to mean the same thing as the verse I talked about previously, but to me these words had a different meaning. I felt the words in this song saying, so many times Christians get comfortable in THEIR faith and THEIR practices that they allow their Spirit's to sleep because they feel they have taken care of themselves and secured a spot in Heaven with God. Even though that may be true, doesn't God ask more of us?! Did God not ask us to go and make disciples of all nations? Shust says that he can't think of anything worth saying... I know I agree with this... whenever I try to approach someone for the first time, my mind goes completely blank and I can think of nothing better to do than avoid that person. But we owe God our lives... He was willing to do ANYTHING to save us, but we aren't willing to have A CONVERSATION for Him.

We must meet people on Sunday mornings... our job does not end at singing/playing on stage. God has called us to do more than just serve Him on stage and look pretty. The calling is PEOPLE! We must engage and start conversations and help begin to get people connected, and then God can do His job of saving their souls. I include myself in this argument, because I know I am very guilty of not reaching out to others on Sunday mornings. It's so easy to talk to your friend and not try to meet someone new or make them feel comfortable. God tells us that we are ACCOUNTABLE for these people. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be standing before God on judgment day and have to explain myself as to why I talked to a friend that I saw several times a week on average, as opposed to reaching out to the person who was sitting at the back of the room trying not to be noticed. God needs our help, and we OWE HIM OUR LIVES.

Give me words to speak Father.