Hallelujah Anyway 3 Day DevotionalSample

DAY III | Failure Won't Keep Me From Your Praise

“You make straight the path that’s set before me. Still, I stumble on the way. There’s more grace to get up and keep on going. Failure won’t keep me from your praise!”

Psalm 51 is a song of repentance. David wrote this psalm of praise with a broken heart while he battled against the haunting presence of shame. It didn’t stem from victory or a time of prosperity as praise often does. This worship song was born from failure. There’s great value in this kind of worship! When condemnation usually propels a man’s soul further from God, David pressed in and ran harder after God. He showed how a champion of faith responds to the greatest of failures. He rejected the worldly sorrow that quenches the heart of worship and instead chose godly sorrow, which changes us to be more like Jesus. Judas, Jesus’ betrayer, chose worldly sorrow and ran farther from God. King Saul chose worldly sorrow and had no songs to sing. But David embraced his sorrow as from the Lord and became the Bible's most prominent songwriter.

Many powerful worship songs have been born from the pen of godly sorrow. That’s because in that place, there’s no room for pride or self-elevation to sneak between the lines. Only utter dependency on God and His grace can bleed from that quill. This is where we choose to believe God’s mercy is greater than our failures, and God’s praise is more important than our shortcomings.

May we understand that in this place, God does not want less of our praise but more of it. Praise is not the response of a heart that has earned God’s acceptance; it’s the song of a heart that has God’s acceptance despite its undeserving condition. With this praise, the Gospel is proclaimed, Jesus is magnified, and God is glorified. So, let us approach God with the same boldness as the psalmist and declare that we will not allow our failures to keep us from praising the Lord! As our shortcomings attempt to snuff out our songs, may we sing Hallelujah Anyway!

- Pastor Sean Stone | A Worship Pastor at Calvary Church Colorado