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Blessed, praised & extolled & thanked be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come & brought deliverance & redemption to His people!

Luke 1:68

We don’t really need a reason to sing a Hallelujah but man do we need to be singing it for the deliverance and redemption we have received.

This was Zechariah’s declaration after the birth of John. He knew that he was getting to be a part of the most amazing thing to happen to humanity. He knew that his son was called to ‘prepare the way for the Lord’. What an honor.

We need to be excited about the calling God has given us, no matter how small it is. Daunters will try to hold us back from walking in the calling but remember they have been deprived of their power to harm us.

Zechariah said “a Light from on high will dawn upon us and visit us” in verse 78. We are living in that dawn and light.

When we let the light of Christ shine in our hearts the dark shadows that Daunters cast over our calling disappears and we like Zechariah can sing a Hallelujah to God for his deliverance.

There shall be heard again the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord, Give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy and kindness and steadfast love endure forever! For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed and return to be as it was at first, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 33:11

It’s hard to believe that Jeremiah received this beautiful, hopeful word from the Lord while in prison. The whole chapter talks about the restoration of Israel but as with much of the Old Testament, it is also about the restoration Christ would bring.

Hope had faded and God knew that in their hearts they saw nothing but desolation, destruction, loss. So many of us sit in the ruins of our lives, a financial failure, a sickness, a loss, a divorce, unfulfilled promises, and dreams. We see nothing but pain and the empty silence that comes from abandonment. God sees a place where He wants to reverse our captivity.

Listen to what God said to Jeremiah about our Daunters. “I’m going to put joy back in your voice and gladness will be on your lips. There will be new unions and new beginnings. You will have something to be thankful for again and you will want to praise Me for it. You are going to be able to sing of My mercy and My kindness and you will fully know My steadfast love for you and that it is never-ending. I’m going to reverse this captivity of your Daunter and restore you. Your heart will return to how it used to be before all this desolation entered your life.”

So give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good. Can you sing a Hallelujah that God is rebuilding the desolation place in your heart?

For great is the Lord & greatly to be praised; He also is to be reverently feared above all so-called gods.

1 Chronicles 16:25

Daunters like us to fear them. And they would like to lead us to believe that they are far scarier than God. The next verse says “all the gods of the people are lifeless idols”. We could add in there all the Daunters are lifeless idols.

If we fear our Daunters we are forgetting that Jesus has deprived them of the power to harm us and then we are not giving Him the praise and reverent fear that He won for us on Calvary.

The verse was written as a Psalm by David when the ark was settled in Jerusalem. The ark represented the presence of God.

This declaration is that God is greater than anything else and that we must give Him His rightful place in our lives.

We may not live in a time like David where there are so many other ‘official’ gods but there are so many things people worship as a god now in place of God. It’s easy to place the things and activities in our lives that we worship ahead of God.

We need to do regular health checks to make sure God is on the throne of our hearts. So sing Hallelujah to Him today because He is great and greatly to be praised!

I am the Lord; that is My name! And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

Isaiah 42:8

How would you feel if your husband, boyfriend, child, someone that you love so much came home and spent the whole day talking about someone else and praising someone else? Texting them, talking on the phone to them, entirely focused on them and not you?

So often that is what we do to God.  It may not be a ‘graven image’ but we have idols we put before God and give our attention and focus to. Often, it’s things that are a natural part of our lives, our husband, our kids, our careers, our hobby, you name it, we make it that focus of our affection and our praise.

I remember hearing the story of Charles Spurgeon where one day while walking through Piccadilly Circus in London, he dropped to his knees in the middle of the street. His companion asked him what was wrong, and he said he had felt something come between him and his Savior. With no regard for his own safety (and that is one place stopping in the road is the worse idea) he couldn’t wait for the second it would take to get across the street. It left a huge imprint in my mind.

Do I love you like that Lord? Is my relationship with You so completely consuming that the slightest deviation causes me to feel the space between us? Is my entire being dependent on that close, intimate connection to You?

Then I look at the hurried insanity that is my life and squeezing in 5 minutes to read the scripture of the day is a task. Every day I ask Him to share His glory in my life with the things in my life.

Where our hearts are, we will find what we are worshiping. Can you find a pure Hallelujah today that gives only God the glory and that He gets all of you in?

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

Psalm 104:33

I once listened as a well-meaning young Pastor, in an attempt to motive the younger members of the church to serve, gave the elder members a free pass to sit back and do nothing. He said that some of the members were retired now and they just wanted to sit back and hand out candy to the kids each week.

AS LONG AS I LIVE. I said it in bold. That means until the day you take your last breath and see Jesus. And not a second before then. There is no retirement in the faith. People this is an active war zone!!!

During World War 2, in the United Kingdom, there was an armed citizen militia called the Home Guard that was made up of those too young or too old to be part of the active military. Many were veterans from World War 1. They played a crucial role in the War in that they had the responsibility of making sure that in the event the Nazi armies invaded they would act as a buffer to give the active military time to respond or regroup.

Just because we don’t have an active role on the battlefield, due to age or ineligibility for active duty, doesn’t mean there isn’t a support role for us to play in this battle. We need a spiritual Home Guard to step up and keep praying.

We all know how hard it is when you have babies and toddlers to find time to pray and study the word. Or when we are in full blow disaster mode. That’s why we have each other, to support each other. In those precious quieter seasons in our walks, we can slow the advance of the enemy in a sisters life.

Just because one stage of our lives is over doesn’t mean we get to kick back and relax, that’s an Eternity position and we aren’t there yet. Just the simple act of daily lifting someone on the frontlines of parenting, sickness, or crisis can make the difference between they surviving the battle or not.

The whole sitting at the back of the church handing out candy isn’t going to cut it. Let’s face it candy is bad for the kids but the prayers we can say for them and their parents will help them to thrive.

Can you sing a hallelujah today for someone on the front lines? Don’t let the stage of life you are in stop you for worshipping with your all!

That together you may unanimously with united hearts & one voice, praise & glorify the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Romans 15:6

We live in a time when the church is so divided, well never mind the church the whole planet is divided. Everywhere you look, on every subject possibly known to man, there are opposite reactions between everyone.

We live in a time when there are no grey areas. God isn’t a fan of lukewarm anyhow so maybe it’s better that people are finally deciding which side they belong to.

The Body of Christ has no business becoming entangled with the division Daunters. Now I’m not talking about issues that go against God’s word, we must defend and guard the faith. I’m talking about the silly divisions that Daunters use to destroy so many ministries, churches, and leaders.

Philippians 2:2 says we are to ‘live in harmony and being the same mind and one in purpose, having the same love, being in full accord and of one harmonious mind and intention”. United hearts!

I know how hard that is. There are people that I have had to separate myself from because there was no harmony between us. Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement and went their separate ways, there are times when issues arise that have nothing to do with the word of God. But both men continued their service to God.

I think that’s a place we have to get to. If our minds are fixed on God, His Kingdom, His Glory, and His work and not on our own selfish vain ambitions we will be one voice united in praise.

I saw a situation last year unfold on Facebook that stemmed from two local churches having booths at the county fair next to each other. Somewhere in the process of ministering together to the lost, they got into a discussion on Calvinism. The Calvinist Pastor went to the lengths of printing t-shirts during the week-long fair showing the Five Points of Calvinism because the other church no longer wanted to even talk to them about anything never mind the subject. I was saddened that this played out so publicly and the Daunter ‘Doctrinal Differences’ won the day by distracting both churches and bringing disunity. But it happens so often when we get caught up in these debates and discussions. Trust me when I say I am just as guilty at letting ‘Doctrinal Differences’ become a Daunter in my life.

Romans 12:18 says “if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” If possible!!! God knows there are times where peace isn’t always possible but make sure, as it depends on you, you have done all you can to be at peace. It means walking away sometimes when you want to stand and defend yourself. It means not reacting when you have been spitefully used, lied about, misrepresented and wounded. I heard a beautiful definition of forgiveness recently.

Nancy Missler said, “When we unconditionally forgive them, we are simply releasing them to God, so that HE can then judge them righteously, and so that our response to their sin won’t become a stumbling block in us.”

As much as depends on you, can you today lay down the things that have let a Daunter place disunity around you and remove that stumbling block so you can sing a united Hallelujah?

Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands and coastal regions and the inhabitants of them, sing a song such as has never been heard in the heathen world!

Isaiah 42:10

A new song. That has really been a theme for me personally this year. I’m letting Him write that new song in my heart. He writes it through tears sometimes and heartaches but He also uses the moments when I feel the sun on the skin and see His beauty all around me. My job in the process is simple to sing the song He is writing.

As much as at the time I want to hide away from the world and everyone in it, I know I can’t. I know that this song has to be sung to the end of the earth.

You are the same sweet friend, I know He is writing a song on your heart too. I have watched so many precious children of God go through some of the most horrific suffering over the last few years. They have walked through refining fires so hot you know it is only God that brought them through.

The songs that are being written though are songs “such as has never been heard in the heathen world”. We follow in the footsteps of some pretty amazing men and women of God but it is us that He chose for such a time as this. What a privilege we have to take up the banner for Christ now and march forth in praise to God.

The world needs to hear the praises of Undaunted women like never before, can you find a new Hallelujah to rise out of your hurt and daunted years?

And whatever you do, no matter what it is, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in dependence upon His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:17

My boys get the abridged version of the scripture continuously. That reminder of who we serve and why we serve.

It changes our perspective when we do everything in the name of Jesus and through dependence on Him. It’s so easy to feel unappreciated in our daily lives. There’s no audience waiting to give us a standing ovation when we clean the bathroom, or get a report finished in time at work, or get up to do that nighttime nursing with a newborn or that we paid our bills this month. Yet it is all these little things that add up to the total of our lives and all these little things that will get us that moment when we go home to Jesus where He will say to us, “Well done, you upright, honorable, admirable and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy, the delight, the blessedness which your master enjoys.” Matthew 25:21

So much falls into place, like our Daunters and their hold on us, when we switch their lordship of our lives to the lordship of Christ. Every word spoken when put through the filter of His glory will change what we say. Every deed done to honor Him and dependant on Him put the focus of what we do with our time and resources in the right place.

It’s so hard to be upset when you are praising God, even for the thankless tasks in our lives. So praise Him in the little things and do them for his glory and then a beautiful Hallelujah will follow.

Make me to hear joy & gladness & be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

Psalm 51:8

Daunters can leave us deaf, confused, and dissatisfied. Their lies can twist our viewpoint and perspective. We can see things in ways they were never meant to be seen. We need the Holy Spirit to restore the joy of our salvation to us. In the armor of God in Ephesians, it is called the Helmet of Salvation. Helmets protect the head and our minds. Salvation is that protection. When we focus on that beautiful gift we have been given we protect our minds from the deception of the Daunters.

The hard part of this verse is “Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.” My heart reacted to that part. I know what it means to have Him break my ‘bones’. I stubbornly hold on to Daunters and He is left with no choice.

When I was in university I was on the Equestrian Team and during a training session, the horse I was riding was in pain and started to buck to get me off and stop the pain. Of course, he ejected me with such force that I did a rather dramatic mid-air summersault before landing on my wrist and fracturing my radius. I went to the ER and they put me in a cast. The next day my fingers started to swell and the pain got worse. When I went back to the doctor he told me one of the other bones had shifted out of place because of the fracture. In order to fix this, I was going to need to be put under so he could break my wrist again in order to put the misplaced bone back in place. If untreated I would never have regained full use of my hand and wrist again and probably done nerve damage.

Our spiritual bones are like that, a hurt causes a fracture in our hearts and we start to mend it but something else was displaced inside us. It’s those displaced bones that God has to break sometimes. And they are painful.

Our tender physician restores these bones and after the healing takes place we rejoice again. Will you let those bones that He broke rejoice today so your healing will be complete?