I Am - Because You Are

If you have never heard this song before it is by Amanda Lindsey Cook and I STRONGLY encourage you to go listen to it now before continuing to read. (it will make more sense if you do ;))

Close your eyes for a moment and picture what your life would look like if God wasn't who He was. What was different? Did it look enjoyable? Probably not. If our God weren't who He says He was, we wouldn't be who we are. See He is our creator and if He wasn't we would not be the sons and daughters that we are. When I first listened to this song, I put it on repeat for a solid 30 minutes. There is something about the progression of the lyrics from the verses into the chorus that makes me picture the progression of our walk with God.

The very first verse says "Take me back to simple things, Where I found You in everything, And worship wasn't just a song I'd sing, All my life an offering" Often times when we first give our lives to Christ, we have to be stripped of all the worldly "clothing" that we have put on throughout our life. Until we surrender absolutely everything we can't see God in all things simply because our vision is clouded by the worldly things that still remain. When I first started going to my church, I would sit in the very back row and hope no one would try to talk to me. I would never jump around during a praise song because every song was just another song I would sing, it had no meaning. See this verse in the song reminds me of the person that has given their life up, but doesn't know what to do next. Until we surrender our pride, and our world ly views, and our worldly ways of living, until we give up ALL of our life as an offering, we can't be who we are supposed to be.

Verse two of the song starts out by asking God to take us back to our original form just like the last verse. But after that it says "Where innocence was everything, And like a child my song would be, Unrehearsed and wild and free" Can you imagine if we all were to jump around and dance like the youth in our churches do? Can you imagine how powerful it would be if every single person were to lay down their pride and start having the passion for the presence of God that the youth has? I know I usually do the challenge at the end of the blog, but I'm going to change things up and do it right here. My challenge to you is to watch the youth at your church and how they worship and praise. Instead of staying in your seat with your arms folded simply singing along, go to the front where they are and follow their lead. Jump when they jump. Raise your hands when they raise theirs. Dance like no one is watching and like you don't care if anyone is when they do. The innocence of a child is incredible. Simply because they have not been exposed fully to the world yet. They don't have an image of what they are supposed to look like yet. They do what they want to do, and that is beautiful.

From that powerful verse, Cook moves into the chorus of the song. She sings "I am because You are, The center of my heart, I'm loved because You're love, And that will be enough" I have a question for you and I really want you to stop reading for a moment and think deeply about this. Is God the center of YOUR heart? If you can't confidently answer that with a yes, I strongly strongly encourage you to dive into His word and ask Him to reveal to you what is at the center of your heart. The next part of the chorus says that we are loved because He IS love. Love is a subject that I often talk about. It is something that I believe is taken for granted more often than it should be. We say that we love a slice of bacon just like we say we love our family or our Creator. 1 Corinthians 13:13 talks about how there are three things that will always remain (faith, hopes and love) and the strongest of all is love. It makes complete sense that love would be the strongest thing because our Heavenly Father IS love. If something tearable were to happen and we lost absolutely everything, we would still have the greatest gift that has ever been given to us, eternal love. And THAT, that is far more than enough.Because God is within you and because His love is more than enough for us, we are more than enough and way more than worthy of everything that God gifts our lives with.

Once I hear the chorus, I honestly didn't think this song could get more powerful. But boy was I wrong. Verse three reminded me of a series that we have been going through at church, called Secret Place Power. It says, "Take me back to simple things, Behind closed doors, just You and me, With nothing grand that I could bring, Your presence was enough for me" So even though most of this verse is the same as the first two, the part that says "behind closed doors, just you and me" made me really understand further all the things that I have been hearing the past month or so. I have found that when we are by ourselves in the presence of God, is when we are the most calm and are able to take a deep breath and stop worrying about anything and everything that is going on around us. It is when we slow down and change our focus from the mayhem that is surrounding us to the glory of God that things begin to settle down and become more manageable. The next part reminds me that nothing ever say or do can change the way that God sees us. We could walk away form him for years, but still He will be there waiting with open arms when we come running back to Him. Forever, no matter what, His presence will always be abundantly more than enough for us.

Prayer:

Lord I thank you for your love. I thank you for giving us the opportunities that you do. We are more than grateful for your presence and the fact that you always want to spend time with us. I pray that you would remind each one of us of thelove that you have for us and that you will always have that love for us no matter what. We love you. Amen

This song is from Amanda Lindsey Cook's newest album, House on a Hill. It was just released on March 29. If you liked thins song go listen to the rest of her album. Each song is incredibly powerful and each of them have a different message behind them. Every single song on this album has a rhythm of rest with a sense of power and dominion as well that is unlike another song. It is available on Spotify, Play Music, Google Play, and Amazon Music! Go check out and let me know what you think.