On prayer life

I am a musician and I must admit that I loved the new will i am video “Yes we can.” However, I must also admit that if there is one thing that I struggle with mightily, it is in my prayer life. Prayer is the water that nourishes our spiritual life. It is what connects us to our God. To highlight the importance of prayer, St. Paul even said that “you must pray without ceasing” i read in a christian magazine.

I am not particularly gifted in public prayer and am very envious of those people who can pray for hours on end. A friend once tried to console me and said that even Jesus’ disciples fell asleep when Jesus prayed on the garden of Gethsemane. He also said that we should follow Jesus’ example on how to pray via the Lord ’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:

"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”



However, my friend also noted that humility and a contrite heart is the most important aspect of prayer that is mostly forgotten. He cited this verse from Luke 18:13:

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'”

Let us dedicate our talents to God

All of our talents and abilities were given by God and you need to give back these talents for His glory.

Exodus 35:35 says:
Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work.

A christian magazine took note that many people are conflicted on how they are called by God. They say that they do not know the specific place that God wants them to be in. The simple answer to that is that you need to know where your gifts and talents are and you can start from there.



Paul says in Romans 12:4-5, "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body … each of us has different work to do"

God calls us into a specific ministry and He gives us the tools that we need in order to excel in that ministry. And like will i am of the black eyed peas, you can never get away from God's calling. Always remember this little from Romans 11:29,

"God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn"

Evangelization should not be the sole purpose of Christian music

Many of today’s Christian musicians are saying that evangelization is the main goal why they are creating their music. Praise is only seen as a secondary goal.

This leads me to ask the question, isn’t music meant to be for praise and worship? The Bible is there to lead the lost and Christian music is there for us to usher our un ending love for God.

And while Christian music as well as the christian magazine has its uses in the evangelization of the secular area, we need to realize that evangelization is not and should not be the main goal of Christian music. Not once in the Bible has music been mentioned as a tool to save the lost.

Also, most of the times, parts of the gospel are lost when you are trying to reach out to a lot of people.

Here is a quote from Michael Card, from Christianity Today:

"The lyrics of a good number of the songs don’t betray anything specifically Christian —they may have some moral message, but not a lot of the big songs are identifiably Christian. . . 'What happens to the message when we start getting the music to as many people as possible?' There is an essential part of the gospel that’s not ever going to sell. The gospel is good news, but it is also bad news: 'You are a sinner, and you are hopeless.' How is a multimillion-dollar record company going to take that? That’s a part of the message, too, and if that’s taken out—and it frequently is in Christian music— it ceases to be the gospel."



As a reminder, here is Psalm 139:1-6

I will give you thanks with all my heart; before the heavenly assembly I will sing praises to you. I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your name, because of your loyal love and faithfulness, for you have exalted your promise above the entire sky.

A Christian musician should glorify God and not himself

All true Christian musicians must not make the mistake of taking the glory away from God. Here are some disturbing things that are happening:

Dallas Morning News, on their April 27, 1996 issue described DC Talk’s "Freak Show" concert:

"As teenagers’ shrieks filled the Dallas Convention Center moments before dc Talk took the stage Friday night, one of the relatively few grown-ups in the sold-out crowd observed, ‘This is just like the BEATLES.’"

Here’s another one from a christian magazine.

Inside Music, in its January/ February 91 issue, describes a Smith concert as:

"His concerts draw hundreds of thousands of fans each year, mostly teenage girls who scream out their AFFECTION FOR HIM non-stop throughout. . . . To his fans, Smith is the absolute greatest there is, BAR NONE . . ."

Notice something wrong?

The glory and praise are being showered on men rather than God. I’m not trying to criticize Mr. Smith or DC talk. It is just that we need to refocus Christian music as something that is only for God.

Here is a reminder from Matthew 16:23

"But he [Jesus] turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, SATAN: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of MEN."

Worldly music is not Christian music

Before you say that this is an obvious point that does not need to be stressed and explained, think about this for a moment.

A christian magazine asks why are some Christian musicians that are claiming to sing Christian songs make a conscious effort to replace and even not mention the name Jesus with different pronouns like Him, He, You?



Why are these so called “Christian music” try so hard to be hip and be accepted by the world?

True Christian music is sung only to the Lord and if other people do not like it, then why should you care?

In Ephesians 5:19 it says:

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart TO THE LORD

In Colossians 3:16 it says:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts TO THE LORD.

Some Christian musicians may argue that they are trying to evangelize through their music. There is nothing wrong with that but you should remember that the main purpose of Christian music is to praise God and not to evangelize.

Remember that the majority of people that would be singing Christian songs are already Christians – and there is no music sweeter and more beautiful than the music that praise and glorify the Lord.

True Christian music is a New Song

When you get saved, you can’t help it but to sing a new song to the Lord. It is not something you fake. It is something that is inherent and it something that you can not control. Giving praise and thanksgiving to him is but a natural reaction to being saved.

In psalm 41:1-3 it says:
“I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath PUT a NEW SONG in my mouth, even PRAISE unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”



Here is an example of how God’s grace affected Paul and Silas and how it ushered in exceeding joy and thanksgiving. In Acts 16:22 it says,

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and SANG PRAISES unto God: and the prisoners heard them.”

A christian magazine said that another key phrase in there is that the prisoners heard them. That means they were not ashamed of giving their praise to the Lord. A sad thing about many of the so called Christian music today is that there is a conscious effort to hide the name of God and Jesus.

Is that Christian to you?

Music with a purpose: Christian music is for God’s praise

First of all, all Christian musicians should be aware of this point. In all the notes that they play and even in the rests that they take – all of this should be dedicated to praise our Lord and Savior.

A christian magazine said that the term Christian means “in CHRIST I Am Nothing.” So if you are truly a Christian musician and if you are really making true Christian music, all of these would be for the glory and the honor of our God.



Here are some supporting scriptures that you may want to read, meditate and reflect upon:

I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing PRAISE to thy name, O thou most High. Psalm 9:2

Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we SING and PRAISE thy power. Psalm 21:13

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my SONG will I PRAISE him.
Psalm 28:7

PRAISE the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
Psalm 33:2-3