I'll Have Everything

I understand better, now, what it means to give place to the devil.
I thought I understood it before, and I'm sure I probably had a good general idea, but seeing a live demonstration of it in my own life, certainly clears any confusion up.

Last week I was reading an e-mail from a friend. While I was reading the e-mail, it was almost like the devil just walked up beside me and handed me a lie. As though it were a physical thing to be handled, I held it, inspected it, then told him it was a lie and moved on with life.
He was quiet, and not very forceful. But, an hour or so later he returned. Again, he quietly spoke the same lie. This time as I inspected it, I saw it had some truth to it, but handed it back anyway.

This kept on for awhile and by the time I got home from work I'd held onto the lie longer and longer, seen more and more truth in it, and it had discouraged me.

As I sat around frowning, suddenly an entirely different voice asked me a question that I hate almost as much as I hated the lie. God simply asked me "So what?"
Whether the devils claim is a lie, or is absolute truth, it doesn't matter. Ultimately it didn't seem as though the devil was as big a problem as the place of importance I'd given my friend.

My hope, my joy, my peace come from God. Everything else should just be a blip on the screen. I hated Gods question, because it's hard to live like that. Putting your hope and comfort in people is nice. It's mostly nice because you can SEE them. And I don't know about you, but sometimes, some days, it's hard to keep all your focus on your invisible friend.

My next step was a common step. When I'm faced with a problem and I don't know what to do, or don't know how to do what I'm suppose to do, or, worse yet, don't want to do what I'm suppose to do, I go to my piano. But this time I ended up writing God's song. I've written songs before and normally would never tell anyone, but this time is different because I didn't write this song. God did. I wrote it down, I played it, and I even sang it, and I didn't agree with a word of it in my heart. I knew I should, but I didn't. So, feel free to leave a comment saying it's the worst song you've ever heard. You won't hurt my feelings. I didn't create it, I just wrote it.

~~~~~~~~~~
I'll Have Everything

I don't need the streets of gold,
or the beautiful gates of pearl.
I don't need a billion diamonds,
Twinkling from the skies above.
I don't even need to hear
The angels ancient melody.
For as long as You are there
Lord I know,
I'll have everything.

Chorus
I'll have everything,
My heart has ever needed, or wanted.
I'll have everything my soul has ever desired.
I'll have wonders that these simple eyes
Have never imagined
And the riches that to this day have never been told
When only Your face I will behold.


It's hard to sing that song, while holding onto the world. It's hard to sing it while holding onto someone else. It's especially hard to sing that song when you believe you're lying. But there is another aspect to the song that I didn't really see until later. Read the song again with a change...


You don't need the streets of gold,
Or the beautiful gates of pearl.
You don't need a billion diamonds
Twinkling from the skies above.
You don't even need to hear
The angels ancient melody.
For as long as I am there,
Don't you know,
You'll have everything.

Chorus
You'll have everything
Your heart has ever needed, or wanted
You'll have everything your soul has ever desired.
You'll have wonders that your simple eyes
Could never imagine.
And the riches that to this day have never been told
When only My face you will behold.


It can either be a song of adoration to Him, or a song of promise from Him. I haven't lived up to my part of the song, yet. Some days I don't think I ever will live up to that. But even as He knows this about me, it hasn't changed His song of promise.
And that just makes me try all the harder.