Emily Hardie

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Worthy

Take a moment and look up Worthy by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“You deserve the praise. Worthy is Your name.”

A name is a powerful thing. Over time our name comes to fully represent everything about us; who we are and where we came from. And it’s the one word that’s uniquely connected to our identity. When someone says our name, we listen. 

There’s a lot of meaning in a name, and there’s power in the act of saying a name — especially the name of Jesus. It’s both familiar and sacred. Almighty, yet accessible. Divine and simultaneously human. There’s no other name like it. No name deserving of the praise, adoration, or worship that the name of Jesus deserves. 

In the Greek, Jesus’ name is best translated as “Savior”, and when we say His name with this meaning His supernatural power shows up. It requires faith to cry out to an invisible God. Every time your lips utter the name, “Jesus,” that’s what you’re doing. You’re saying, in faith, that Jesus has the power to bring you to the other side of your circumstances. 

Whatever your circumstances may be today, remember this: 

In Jesus’ name, there is hope.
In Jesus’ name, there is power.
In Jesus’ name, there is Resurrection. 

It’s in His name that every need is met and every soul is satisfied. 

Read Philippians 2:9-11.

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

God of the Promise

Take a moment and look up God of the Promise by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“Light of the World, trample the darkness. Nothing can stop it; You are the God of the promise.” 

We’ve all made empty promises. Despite our best efforts, we’re still human. And as humans, there are times when things are simply out of our control. 

Thankfully, this never happens with God. Since the beginning of time, He’s not just been a God who makes promises. He’s a God who keeps them. It’s who He is. What He speaks, happens. 

Even before the beginning of time, He spoke into the nothingness, and time, space, and matter were brought into existence. He called forth light, and it broke out of the darkness. He breathed into the dust of the earth, and brought forth new life. 

And His promise keeping doesn’t stop with creation. God has continued making and keeping promises. 

God promised Abraham he would be the father of many nations — and it happened.
God promised David he would one day be king of Israel — and he was.
God promised that one day a King of Kings would be born in Bethlehem — and Jesus’ birth fulfilled that promise and over 350 other promises made about Him. 

Today, God continues to make promises to His people, and every promise that’s been made by God is “yes” in Christ. 

But just because God makes and keeps His promises doesn’t mean we will always experience their fullness in our lives. In order to inherit the promises of God, we have a responsibility to exercise our faith. 

Even when our circumstances say otherwise. Even when our situations seem out of control. Even when our disbelief seems firmer than our faith, we must choose faith. 

Nothing can stop it. He is the God of the promise. 

Read 2 Corinthians 1:20.

²⁰ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Hallelujah Here Below

Take a moment and look up Hallelujah Here Below by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“We are an altar of broken stones, but You delight in the offering. You have the heavens to call Your home, but You abide in the song we sing.” 

There’s something funny about having guests over. Most of us clean our houses from top to bottom until it looks like a model home: perfect and unused. 

And while that might be fine to do for parties, sometimes we try to do the same thing with our worship. 

We try to get everything in order before we have God over. We spend our time dusting off our shelves and hiding what we don’t want Him to see. We think that once our place is perfect, then it’s time to worship Him and invite Him in. 

We feel that if we get the promotion, fix up our finances, get our kids to do what we say, and repair our relationships, then we’ll finally be able to get into a good place with God. 

Our lives are messy — and it’s easy to feel like God can’t do anything with a mess. But in Exodus 20:25, God tells His people that,

If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. Exodus 20:25

“Dressed stones” meant stones that were cut and shined — stones that were nearly perfect. 

God actually asked for imperfection. He could have told His people to worship Him with an altar of perfect, solid gold bricks. Instead, He asked for undressed stones. 

Even if our altar is made of imperfect stones, God still delights in our offering. Struggling, hurting, broken — it’s what He asked for. 

He is knocking at the door of your home. Let Him in, mess and all. 

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Here Again

Take a moment and look up Here Again by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“I’m not enough unless You come. Will You meet me here again?” 

“I’m not enough.”
We’ve all thought it. We’ve all felt it. 

Maybe the voice in your head didn’t say, “You’re not enough.” Maybe instead it said, “You’ll never fit in with them,” “You’ll never be a good parent,” or “People won’t accept you because of what you’ve done.” 

Our inner voice has a way of being sneaky. It gets in, whispers destructive thoughts, and before we even notice, we start believing them. 

But in Christ, we are enough. 

The key is that we aren’t enough until we ask Him to meet us where we are. We’ll never feel like we’re enough without Him. It’s through our weakness that we experience His strength. 

So next time the thought “I’m not enough,” creeps into your head or weighs you down, ask God to meet you in that moment. 

Because the moment we reach for Him, we don’t have to feel like we’re enough. He’s already more than we can ask for or imagine. 

Read 2 Corinthians 12:9.

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.