Connecting With God

Connecting with God

The LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17

I have been a music lover ever since I arrived on planet Earth. Among other things, my mother wrote in the baby book, “Cheri sings before she talks,” and indeed I did. I even joined my big sisters in a musical group when I was six. And praising God with the whole congregation at the beginning of a church service isn’t the only time I sing because I’ve found it’s a way God has given me to connect my heart with his heart even on the busiest of days. That’s just how he’s wired me. Music is in my DNA.

Knowing that music is one of my best spiritual pathways, if I’m distracted during a quiet time in the morning or my mind is wandering to all the tasks I’m facing, I get out the words from a song I learned at a retreat where I spoke, and I sing, “Draw me close to you; never let me go. . . .” before reading a chapter from the Bible. In those moments of worship, I am drawn closer to God. And amazingly, as today’s verse says, God rejoices over his people with joyful songs. God sings over me!

On another day I sing, “I cast all my cares on you,” and the dusty concerns of life start to blow away with each note I sing. Music helps me turn down the world’s volume and tune into God’s symphony and what he’s purposing for me at a certain time. It quiets my busy mind and racing heart and can even bring me into meaningful intercession for a loved one or friend.

I believe God has hardwired every person with specific and individual ways to connect with him. And if we make the most of our God-given spiritual pathways, it will help us experience the Lord’s presence in marvelous ways.

—CHERI

Father, thank you for creating me for relationship with you and for giving me the gift of music, not only to praise you, for you are certainly worthy of praise, but also to help me connect with your melody and be a part of your great symphony.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

—BERTHOLD AUERBACH (1812–1882), GERMAN NOVELIST