Wouldn’t it be something if we could put all of our problems into a big basket and give the basket to God. That would free us up to spend our time praising God for delivering us from our biggest problem = sin. Actually, if we took all of the bad things in this life and stacked them up against the dreadful thought of our sins separating us from God in this life and into eternity, the scale would easily tip toward condemnation.
And then there is the great statement by the apostle Paul, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgression, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5). God loves us so much that He is willing and wanting to save us “in Christ”. That should produce praise to God because it overrides the problems we dwell on in this life. It would be better if we would turn our problems over to God so we are freed up to praise Him. The Lord Jesus will take them if we give them to Him. It is amazing that Paul begins the Ephesian letter with a burst of praise (Ephesians 1:3-14). What is extra amazing is that Paul is writing this letter from a prison cell (now that’s a problem). Yet, he is still praising his deliverer, Jesus Christ.
The song My Deliverer by Mandisa can help us push our problems aside to make room for praise. Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and listen to a song that will put a bounce in your step today.
Ephesians 2:1-10
And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.