The Songs We Know by Heart
By Meg Bucher
“So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life He promised us.” - 1 John 2:24-25 NLT
The breeze filled the car and swept the musty smell of the cold winter months away. Warm Spring days carry the promise of the Summer and the warmth it brings to the North. The songs I sing to myself are different in the presence of the warm Summer breeze in our beautiful Northern lake town. Watching the flowers bloom and the lake thaw, people return to prep their summer homes, and the last day of school celebrations begin ushering in new life.
But, Spring is a liar. Inevitably, the cold will snap back and the snow will fall again on the freshly blooming flowers. Suddenly, the summer soundtrack playing in the background of my daily drive seems a little premature. In the North, we can be mowing the grass one day and the next clearing the driveway of snow.
The songs we know by heart tend to be seasonal. When the weather breaks in our lives, the praise flows easily out of our hearts and our minds. But, when Spring is a proverbial liar in our lives, and the late snow fights with the early blooming flowers, our tune isn’t always so naturally lighthearted.
The songs we know by heart say a lot about the state of it. The apostle John wrote to the early Christians, to encourage them not to forget what they knew of Jesus in tight spaces and hard moments of suffering. It’s easy to have faith when things are easy. But it’s when the weather unexpectedly turns in our lives it’s most important to remember the songs we know by heart. “You must remain faithful,” John wrote, “to what you have been taught from the beginning.” Scripture tells us often to have faith like a child. The building blocks of our faith do not change over time. Though the Lord grows and stretches us as we follow Him when life throws confusion in our faces …we are to run to those powerful roots of our faith.
“If you do,” John wrote, “you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.” It is through the Holy Spirit in us -from the moment we surrender our lives to Christ Jesus- who helps remind us of the songs we know by heart …the Biblical truths which help us survive storms in life. Storms of suffering, and of attack on our faith in the battle for our hearts. “And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life He promised us,” John wrote.
Fellowship is defined as, “the condition of relation, friendly relationship, companionship, and communion.” (dictionary.com) The NIV translation uses the word remain, which in the original Greek means “to be in a state that begins and continues, yet may or may not end or stop.” (NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary) It’s easy to forget a song we once knew by heart over the course of our lives, but as soon as we play it or hear it again, it comes flooding back. Our fellowship with Christ is based on our willingness to remain in Him. Our salvation is not affected by our lack of effort or over-exertion of it. We will know Him more, as we seek Him more. As we replay the basic building blocks of our faith in our hearts, He expounds upon what we are able to perceive.
John followed today’s verses with these words:
“I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives with you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true- it is not a lie. So, just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” 1 John 2:26-27 NLT
Intersecting Faith and Life:
John was writing to people who were being fed all sorts of different teachings. He encouraged them to stick to the truth about Christ they learned from the beginning. When we follow Christ, we get up every day and put on the armor of God for many reasons, but this is a big one: to protect our hearts and minds from things that are not true. The New Spirit Filled Life Bible explains, “Only the Holy Spirit is able to bring revelation to the human heart.” The Holy Spirit is our Helper, Strengthener, and Counselor. He helps us to sift through the weeds, and through the clamor of the pressures of the world then, and the noises of our society now, be able to hear and recognize the Truth. Reading the Word of God daily ensures we know the Truth by heart.
God Bless and Glory Up.
Further Reading:
Additional Resources:
- NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary. Copyright © 2015 by Zondervan.
- New Spirit Filled Life Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright 2013 by Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Lordn
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