The Comfort of an Old Hymn

Familiar Christian music can hold you when nothing else quite does. Discover why the songs you've sung for years reach places words can't, and how God meets you in a melody when your faith feels dry.There's a comfort that comes the moment you hear the first few notes of a song you've known forever. Maybe it's a hymn you sang as a kid, standing next to your mother in the pew. Maybe it's the one they play at every funeral you've been to. Before you've thought about a single word, something in you settles. The music has been holding a memory for you, keeping it safe and connected to a time and a person you loved. When life gets to be too much, that melody can reach a place plain words can't.This episode opens with Gerald Wolfe, a gospel musician at his dying father's bedside. His dad had slipped somewhere conversation couldn't reach, and most days there was little left to say. One afternoon Gerald started an old hymn his father had sung for years, just to fill the room with something familiar. What happened next changed the rest of Gerald's life.Scripture shows why music does this. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly... in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Paul wanted God's truth to take up residence in us, deep down and settled in, and he named singing as one of the ways it happens. A truth you only hear, you might forget by Friday. A truth you've sung a hundred times gets down inside you and stays. That's why the words come back when almost everything else is gone.So if your soul feels dry, put on a hymn you loved as a kid, or a worship song that has meant something to you. Don't analyze it. Let it play and let the words return on their own. The song can pray for you when you can't, working truth back into you that you couldn't reason your way to. Bart shares his own take, that modern worship tends to move him most, though the lyrics of the old hymns still stop him cold. Gerald's father proved the point. When Gerald sang, his dad began to sing too, verse after verse, the words returning the second the melody did. It was the last song they shared, and it sent Gerald mailing hymn recordings to nursing homes, where people who can't hold a conversation still open their mouths and sing every word.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why a familiar hymn can reach you when plain words no longer doWhat Colossians 3:16 says about singing as a way God's word settles in youA simple step for letting a song revive a faith that feels dryWhen words fail and your soul feels dry, God can meet you in a melody you forgot you knew. Put on the old song and let it lead you back.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/318Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.