On the night he was betrayed, Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples. When you need to fortify your faith against heartache or discouragement, follow his example and choose a song. Lift up praise to the Lord, and refresh your heart with hope.
Download "This is My Father's World" at joniradio.org. Order your copy of "Timeless Hymns."
Hi, I'm Joni, and you know me – I love singing hymns!
Welcome to Joni and Friends where we love to sing. And I’m so excited that our headquarters are open after that long season of COVID, and whenever I wheel through the front door and head up the ramp to my office, I’m singing a hymn. And since I mentioned COVID, you should know that I spent a lot of that stay-at-home time memorizing more stanzas to more hymns. If I’m going to have a song on my heart, I want to know it by heart! And I need to, given that I cannot physically reach for a hymnal to flip the pages. So I have racked up a lot of hymns in my heart. That way I can always be ready with praise to God. During the day, I often kick back, look out the window, lift up a brief song to the Lord as a way of keeping my heart fresh, keeping connected with God, and keeping a spirit of worship. And it is done best when you’ve committed those songs by heart.
I’ve lived with quadriplegia for more than half a century and have wrestled with chronic pain for much of that time. I struggle with breathing problems, and I am still in an ongoing battle against cancer. All this makes for a perfect storm for discouragement. Yet when my hip is frozen in pain, or it’s simply another weary day of plain paralysis, I strengthen myself with the example of Jesus who, on the night he was betrayed, sang a hymn with his friends in the Upper Room. Right there my suffering Savior taught me to always choose a song – a song that fortifies my faith against discouragement and breathes hope into my heart. And so I daily take up my cross to the tune of a hymn.
And I choose hymns that have stanzas which point to solid Christian doctrine. Again, it’s why I learned them by heart. Because I know me. I know it’s hard for me to memorize things unless those concepts are put to music. Beautiful melodies help me memorize things from God’s Word. And it’s why I’m excited about a new project, a new book, involving some of the most treasured hymns of the faith. It’s a book called “Timeless Hymns for Family Worship.” And I put it together with background stories on each hymn, devotional reflections, lyrics – so everyone in the family can commit them to memory. And I would love for you to hear one of these songs, a favorite that I often sing when I’m sitting by a lake, or wheeling down a path in the forest, or enjoying the beach. Because this is my Father’s world, and I sure do love singing about it, so take a breather and listen...
This is my Father's world,
And to my listening ears;
All nature sings, and round me rings,
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought;
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought.
Hey, today, this hymn is available as a download at joniradio.org, so get it on your playlist and get your kids singing along. The Bible says to sing and make music in your heart, and you and your family can do just that with my new book “Timeless Hymns for Family Worship.” It’s all there for you at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends