My wife had a law school professor who once shared something very unexpected in their class.
Michael talked about how he’d struggled with a disordered and unhealthy relationship with his body. By this time, it had become more acceptable for women to share about this struggle, but it certainly had not for men.
Michael shared that things finally began to change when he engaged in a rather unorthodox practice. He would stand in front of his mirror and repeat Bible verses and principles about the worth and value of his body. He started doing these affirmations each morning as part of his daily routine. “I would preach the Gospel to myself each morning and remind myself that my body was now the temple of the Holy Spirit.
When God made it, He declared it very good.” This daily practice is the embodiment of the lyrics of Phil Wickham's hit song, “This is Our God.” In a video on his YouTube Channel, recorded just before he played the song on tour for the first time, Wickham described the song as both a “line in the sand” and a “manifesto.” He went on to say:
“I love singing this song. When I sing it, it’s like I’m preaching to my own soul to remember and respond to all that Jesus has done for us.”
WATCH NOW: Phil Wickham - This Is Our God (Official Music Video)
RELATED CONTENT: Phil Wickham Preaches to His Own Soul on “This Is Our God”
On a daily basis, we are bombarded with messages about our worth and value, our bodies, our work and relationships, and every other facet of our lives. Those messages sometimes feel like good news. More often than not, they feel like a burden and bad news.
As I’ve listened to "This is Our God" on repeat lately (always a great way to test the greatness of a song), I keep returning to three truths Wickham and his co-writers (Brandon Lake, Pat Barrett , and Steven Furtick) drive home.
First, we need to hear what the Gospel says about us more often. Too many of us are trying to find spiritual victory with an occasional dip into God’s truth. A recent study by the American Bible Society indicated that only 10% of Americans read the BIble everyday (down from previous years), while 26 million Americans stopped reading their Bible entirely during the pandemic. Things got harder for us and we spent less time engaging the truth of God’s word.
Just getting to a church service for an hour each weekend isn’t enough. We don't need someone to preach the Gospel to us on Sundays; we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves everyday. On a daily basis, we need to hear the Gospel, which Timothy Keller summarizes so beautifully. “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” We need to hear those truths more often.
Second, we need to frequently remember what God has done for us. In his song, Wickham asks six important questions about our past experiences with God.
“Remember those walls that we called sin and shame?”
“Remember those giants we called death and grave?”
“Remember that fear that took our breath away?”
“Who pulled me out of that pit?”
“Who paid for all of our sin?”
“Who rescued me from that grave?“
Those questions take us back into dark moments in our past. Some of us may want to forget those moments and leave them behind. But I have found that remembering what God has done for me in the past shores up and strengthens my faith as I face obstacles in my present. Our memory is one of the greatest gifts God has given us, in order to do spiritual battle.
As King David wrote in Psalm 143:5:
“I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear. I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.”
Third, we need to make sure God is receiving all of the glory He deserves. In a world where the greatest dream of the next generation is to be a YouTuber or social media influencer, the temptation to glory-hog the space due God is very real! I found Wickham’s final question to be perhaps his most profound. “Who gets the glory and praise?” It’s one thing to step into the truth of who God says I am each day. It’s another thing to engage in a holy memory of God’s movement in the past.
RELATED CONTENT: Phil Wickham Declares Jesus is Alive in "Sunday Is Coming"
While those two first two steps I’ve mentioned here are difficult, I think praising and glorifying God in public may be the hardest step of all. King Nebuchadnezzar built a giant statue to his own glory and commanded everyone in his empire to bow to it. Talk about glory hogging. He even supported throwing three men into a fiery furnace turned up seven times hotter than normal, in his anger towards them.
However, God protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, as recorded in Daniel 3. The King was humbled and under a deep sense of conviction and repentance, we read his declaration in Daniel 4:2-3:
“I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me, How great are his signs, how powerful his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations.”
Phil Wickham’s song “This is Our God” invites us to declare that kind of message to the world and to stand on our testimony during troubling times:
“I'm just praying that this song would be (a moment where people say) - this is what I stand on. This is who I believe in and this is who saved me. And I have nothing to fear and I have every reason to sing because my God is Jesus. He pulled me out of the pit. He saved me. He did it.”
I pray that you’ll take that stand. Today, fully embrace the Gospel. Preach it yourself and declare what God has done in your life. Draw your line in the sand and live your faith with boldness and gratitude!
Scott Savage is a pastor and a writer, and yes he does have the best last name ever. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. Scott is married to Dani and they are the proud parents of three children. He loves helping hurting people forgive others through his Free to Forgive course and you can read more of his writing at scottsavagelive.com.
