But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them.” – Acts 16:25, AMP

There is a line in the hymn “Lord, I Need You” (written by Ron Hamilton of Majesty Music) that goes like this:

Lord, help me to remember I’m weak but You are strong, I cannot sing apart from You, for Lord, You are my song…

I am not a particularly musical person, but there are days when my heart is so full of the joy of The Lord that I burst out in song. I do what I can to spare others from hearing the wretched sounds that emerge from my crooning throat, so I usually limit myself to singing in the car or at home when no one else is around.

Then, there are days when the thought of singing is abhorrent to me. On days when I’m mad, I’m bitter, I’m tired, I’m worried, or I’m exhausted, the furthest thing from my mind is singing praises to The Lord. I’m much more in the mood to pound sand than to sing, and I have been guilty (more often than I’d like to admit) of looking for a pile of sand or a soft pillow to yell at and punch.

The difference between days when I feel like singing and days when I don’t has nothing to do with my circumstances. I’ve had stinky days when I felt like singing, and I’ve had good days when I’ve felt like hitting something. The difference between my singing days and my fleshly days lies in the status of my relationship with The Lord. If I am in tune with and dependent on The Lord, I want to sing. If I am out of fellowship with and acting independently of my Lord, there is no song in my heart. This is the secret behind Paul and Silas’ ability to sing praises to God after being beaten and thrown into jail, and this is our secret behind being able to do the same when the circumstances of life are just downright smelly.

As Mr. Hamilton’s song so succinctly puts it, “I cannot sing apart from You, for Lord, You are my song.” If you have no song in your heart today, the reason you don’t is because you are apart from The Lord. You may have committed some sin that has hurt your relationship with Him. Or, you may not have sinned, but you have allowed other matters to distract you from maintaining a daily dialogue with the King. In either case, you can restore your song by restoring your relationship with the Source of joy – either through repentance or through rededication – and I would challenge you today to do just that.