In my humble opinion, hymns sometimes get neglected in churches today. While there is something to say about modern worship being written for today, there are hymns written by the likes of Fanny Crosby and John Newton that shaped the church and our worship. But I digress...

I have been thinking and praying a lot lately about what it means to surrender to God, when it comes to my job or when it comes to my finances. The Sunday service worship sets are filled with songs of surrender and we all gladly throw our arms up and sing, "I surrender" at the top of our lungs.

Well recently, as I stood and worshipped God, the thought came to me, "Are you really willing to surrender all? Are you really willing to give Me your best?" I was stopped in my tracks. For me it had to do with trusting God with my finances, with allowing God to manage the spreadsheet that I track our family budget on and not allowing the spreadsheet to manage my faith in God to provide.

Matthew 6:33 tells us, "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." I have found it more difficult to live out that verse more than any other.

With the affluent society that I live in, with the riches of the country that I am blessed to live in, having to trust in God for anything at all becomes tough. Why trust for healing? There's free health care and good doctors. (I'm Canadian, so it is free health care.) Why trust for food or clothes or shelter? I have a great job that pays me a great salary. 

But I listened to that voice. I started giving to the church. And the words of "Blessed Assurance" (as sung by Elevation Worship) could not ring more true in my life right now:

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

I can have perfect peace and rest when I let God manage things and let go of the false sense of control that I thought I had. I can throw my arms up in surrender during worship and know that I am indeed willing to surrender all for Christ.

I encourage you to listen to the old hymns of the Church. There is so much truth contained within them. I encourage you to move outside of what worship has become known as, that is modern worship music, and begin to live a lifestyle of worship devoted to our God and King, or as the refrain goes in "Blessed Assurance," "Praising my Savior, all the day long!"