A Lot to Sing About
Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. - (Acts 16:25)
If we were to rate Christianity on the basis of music only, it is clear that Christians own music. My friend Marty Goetz says that as a young Jewish boy, he envied Christians because while he was celebrating Hanukkah, Christians were celebrating Christmas with songs like “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night,” and “Joy to the World.” He admired our music.
But we are not rating our faith on the basis of music; it is on the basis of what we believe and Whom we believe in. Christians sing a lot because we have a lot to sing about.
When a believer can praise God in the midst of trials and suffering, a lost world takes notice. When you are going through hardship and can still praise God, nonbelievers will pay attention.
Case in point: Paul and Silas were thrown into a dungeon for preaching the gospel. They had been severely beaten and their feet were in stocks, but Acts 16:25 says, “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”
In Revelation 15, we find the martyrs from the Tribulation “singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (verse 3). They have come through the worst fire imaginable: they had put been put to death for their faith. Yet they are in heaven, singing their songs.
Worship music is not for our entertainment. The musicians and vocalists in church want to lead us in worship. You may say, But I don’t have a great voice. That hasn’t stopped thousands of people from auditioning for American Idol, so it shouldn’t stop you. You aren’t performing for anyone. When you worship, you are singing for an audience of one: God. So get into practice.
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