Tamela Mann - One Way - The Overflow DevoSample

Jesus Again

I was eight years old when I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life. I was young but I was serious. I’ll never forget my first solo, “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired” by James Cleveland. I sang it all the time, and when I would get to the bridge, “I don’t believe He’s brought me this far to leave me,” I would weep and weep and weep.

My ad-libs reminded the congregation that God had kept my momma, and God had kept my family, and before I knew it, the church would be standing and praising God with me! Now, remember, I was 8 years old; so I hadn’t been through a whole lot, but I had seen enough to know that God was faithful.

Around the same year I got saved, my mother was diagnosed with pneumonia. Her sickness kept her bedridden for a long time, and all of my other siblings had moved out of the house. So I learned to cook for myself, clean for myself, and take care of myself—even as a child. I was always in survival mode because I had to take care of myself even when nobody else was around.

Some of the things I survived as a child were so painful to endure that I blocked them out of my memory. But I never let go of my God, and I never let go of my song. Singing was a tool that led me to the Savior. Even as a young girl, God used my voice to save me from myself.

Every time I sang, I was encouraged to see a brighter day. I was encouraged to believe that God was going to use me beyond my wildest dreams. Even when I was eight, God was teaching me how to worship in advance. I didn’t know it then, but I was sending praise to God in advance for what He was about to do. And now that I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, my only desire is for others to know...Jesus again.

What the world needs is Jesus again. We need another “dip of the Holy Spirit” as the old mothers used to say in the Pentecostal church I grew up in. No matter how long you’ve been in church, all of us can use a refill of His Presence. I never want to open my mouth and sing and feel the same thing I felt the last time. My desire is that the song will fall on the ears of the hearer in a fresh way, and that lives will be changed for God’s glory, again, and again…and again.

As you listen to this song, my prayer is that you will never stop calling on the name of Jesus. Remember, He is faithful. He is forgiving. He is for you. And nothing you could ever do…will ever stop Him from loving you.