Learning to Praise God
The other day I was listening to the radio and they had one of the musicians do a "Behind the Music" moment. This is an opportunity to let the listeners know what inspired the musician to write the song. The song is called Holding Nothing Back by Ray Stevenson.
He shared the story of how his life was falling apart with huge challenges like his wife loosing their unborn twins and his record label dropping him. The trials started to pile up and he was feeling angry with God.
In these moments of darkness he turned to the story of Job and was impressed with the fact that Job had lost everything, yet he still praised God. He felt as if God was asking Job "Am I enough?"
That's when his inspiration came and he decided that he would not let anything come between him and the Lord. He was not going to hold back.
I've been thinking about the question "Am I enough?" If God were to ask me that question directly how would I answer? I would want to say 'YES', but do my words and actions always express that sentiment? The answer is 'NO', but the simplicity of the question "Am I enough?" inspires me to work towards being able to say 'yes'.
Every year I choose some area in my spiritual journey to work on. This year I am working on learning how to praise God. I decided that each month I would study one aspect of praising God and try to implement it into my life. My encounter with this song on the radio helped me choose this month's topic: Praising God through my trials.
When life's challenges start to pile up and I'm not handling the stress well I stop and picture the Savior asking me "Am I enough?" It's amazing how quickly my perspective changes and my priorities start to fall into the proper order, just by saying these three words.
I've also been blessed to study the scriptures everyday and to recognize the examples of people who have decided that God truly is enough for them. Abinadi is one of those examples. As I've read Mosiah 11-17 I am so impressed with this prophets ability to give up his life to share his message with the wicked people of King Noah. When given the opportunity to save himself by recanting his words, he chooses to stay true and sacrifices his life to seal his testimony. For Abinadi God truly was enough.
Abinadi was inspired by the words of Isaiah concerning the Savior and the Atonement. As the Savior was asked to sacrifice himself for all of us, Abinadi was willing to sacrifice his life to share his message. His sacrifice was not in vain, his words and actions changed the heart of one man who would go on to do some great works.
I don't think that I will be called to sacrifice my life for my beliefs, but I do know that He is asking me to share His message and not to worry about the consequences. It means overcoming my fears (which have been many over the years) and letting my words and actions say to Him, "Yes Lord you are enough!"
In my class today there were some questions that really seemed to get everyone thinking:
How strong is my testimony? Am I willing to die for it? Better yet, am I willing to live for it?
Living for my testimony really got to me. What a great way to praise God during my trials!
I want to thank my Savior and my Father in Heaven for blessing me with so many inspirational moments. They know me so well and know exactly what I need and when I need it. I love them so much for that. With each of these moments I get one step closer to being able to say "Yes Lord you are enough for me!"
