A few weeks before the recital, I got sick. “Bronchitis,” the doctor told me in between my coughing fits. And despite all efforts to rest my voice, I was still coughing when the big day arrived.
“How am I going to sing, when I can’t even talk without coughing?” I worried.
But Psalm 59:16 changed my perspective: “But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, for You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress.” (NASB)
There are two ways to sing of God’s strength.
We can sing about God’s strength—praising Him for His power and might.
But we can also sing in God’s strength—knowing that without His enabling, none of us could take another breath, much less raise our voices in song.
I’ll never forget that recital. I coughed until the moment it started and didn’t cough again until I took my final bow! I sang in God’s strength that day—He enabled me. And you’d better believe that I sang about God’s strength to everyone who would listen afterward! He had been so faithful.
Maybe you don’t have to sing in front of a crowd today, but whatever you are called on to do, make it a song of God’s strength. Do everything in dependence on His power and then praise Him for it.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org