The Rebellion of Song

There was a good and just king who ruled His kingdom with great affection and generosity. But despite his love for his people, there arose in the kingdom a great rebellion fed by charges against the character of the king. Instead of generous, his subjects chose to believe him to be stingy; instead of loving, they chose to see him as a tyrant. And because they believed the lie, they sought to depose the king…

You know the story because it’s our story. Thankfully, it doesn’t end there. God, the good and rightful King, launched a counter-rebellion in His own Son. The kingdom of God swept into the rebellious world in the most inauspicious of ways—in a manger and under the watch of shepherds. One by one, though, people began to come back to their true king. They became, and we along with them, a rebellion against the rebellion.

This is where we find ourselves today, living as ambassadors of another kingdom in the midst of hostile territory. We are the rebellion against the rebellion. But this rebellion is fueled by love, grace, forgiveness, compassion and service. These are the weapons of the rebellion against the rebellion, but there is another weapon we have at our disposal. It’s an unlikely one, something that we wouldn’t typically think of as being powerful when wielded correctly.

It’s the weapon of singing, and for the follower of Jesus, singing is a powerful weapon indeed. With the songs of the faith, we are able to fight this rebellion against at least three sources:

1. Singing rebels against the world.

Our songs are one of the most powerful weapons we have by which we declare the truth of what we believe. When you think about it, that’s exactly what we are doing when we sing; our songs have as their basis that which is most important to us. That’s why it’s important that we are able to sing, and sing loudly, that which is distinctly Christian. It’s an act of rebellion by which we declare what we truly love, what we truly desire, and what we truly believe.

2. Singing rebels against our circumstances.

In large part, our songs are contradictory in a sense. We sing about joy, victory, and the greatness and supremacy of Jesus, all the while we are walking through cancer treatments. And job loss. And deaths of friends and loved ones. But we sing on. And as we do, we are declaring that our present circumstances do not have the final word. Jesus does. And so we sing what is true no matter what our circumstances might say to us.

3. Singing rebels against our own hearts.

Sometimes we need to rebel against ourselves. When our hearts condemn us, when we are prone to wander, when every emotion in us is pulling us in a direction contrary to the will of God, we sing. As we do, we are taking an active stand against our deceitful hearts which would have us believe that something other than Jesus is better than Jesus. As we sing, we find that slowly, methodically, we can actually start to gain ground in our own hearts and souls.

Christian, sing today. Sing tomorrow. Sing the songs of the rebellion, and fight on.

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