I grew up in a Church of Christ community, which automatically means I know every word to "Blessed Be Your Name" by MercyMe because we sang it almost every Sunday morning. When I first heard it, I loved the song, but I quickly grew tired of it the more we worshipped with it. It became a routine to me to spout out the verses that sounded exactly the same, but no one ever knew what order the words went in without the lyrics on the screen. That’s the danger of going through the motions with the worship you engage in and the songs you sing -- sometimes you miss the true beauty of why the lyrics make it a worship song.
Just last night, during a worship time with my friends, we sang "Blessed Be Your Name." I haven’t heard the song in years as more recently my ears have been filled with worship songs from Hillsong, Bethel, and Jesus Culture. However, one lyric stood out to me in a way it never has before.
“Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name.”
I finally understood the gravity that came with that statement. In the Old Testament, when God made his promises to Abraham to make his descendants into a great nation, we see God ask the unspeakable of his servant -- sacrifice his only son Isaac. How was God to make a great nation of Abraham’s descendants if he must sacrifice his son? But Abraham willingly took Isaac to be sacrificed, only to be stopped by God just before the deed was done.
That raises a lot of questions. Did Abraham care that little about his son that he had no problem offering him? Of course not. There’s pain in the offering, but blessed be God’s name.
Often, as Christians, we think after offering our lives to God, it will be a smooth sailing through life and we’ll always have faith in Him. That’s not true. We as humans experience sin, experience grief, experience pain. This doesn’t mean we’re straying from God or being “bad Christians.” It is simply a part of the Christian walk.
When we choose a life of following God, we choose to offer our lives up to Him. Our old lives of sin that deserve death are consumed in flames as a sacrificial offering and we are born again in Christ.
There is pain in the offering. There are going to be times when we experience loss, whether it be loved ones, relationships, jobs, etc, but we are called to praise God in all that we do. We are called to praise him through our toughest times. We are called to be like Job and trust that God will provide. We are called to recognize God’s glory and that through His power, pain and evil cannot shake the Lord God Almighty. We are called to partner with God and walk with Him through life and His strength through us will relieve our pain and get us through anything.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
