MUSIC MONDAY: "Great Things"

Hi all! It has been a while since I last posted as I've been pretty busy but I am going to start a weekly post discussing the meanings of some of my favorite worship songs. Today I want to talk about "Great Things" by Elevation Worship. If you know me you may know that I am a HUGE Elevation Worship fan as their music is powerful both musically and spiritually. This song is probably my favorite Elevation song so let's go through it verse by verse!

VERSE 1

Thank You for the wilderness Where I learned to thirst for Your presence If I'd never known that place How could I have known You are better?

This first verse is one of my favorite parts of the song. After hearing the first line it may seem a little bit strange that we are thanking God for the hard times in life. Personally, I find myself thanking God more in the good times in life, like when I don't have a lot of schoolwork or when I'm not busy. In the hard times in life, I usually find myself asking God to help me through the stress, not thanking him for it! But in the last three lines it talks about how we get to know God better in the hard times and how it draws us closer to Him. If we hadn't gone through those tough times where would we be in our faith?! I think we all have gone through tough times and many of us can relate to this truth.

VERSE 2

Thank You for the lonely times When I learned to live in the silence As the other voices fade I can hear You calling me, Jesus

This verse can be interpreted as talking about when you are struggling with the feeling that God is silent in your life, but I like to look at it from the angle of us being in silence and listening to God. This past summer, I went on a missions trip for about 10 days with no phones or computers and little communication with those not physically around me. In those 10 days we had a devotional time in which we went to a silent location with nobody around us and read our Bibles and prayed. This time of silence without the distractions of my phone or my peers brought me closer to God than ever before and made me listen closer to His plans for me and my life.

PRECHORUS/CHORUS

And it's worth it all just to know You more

You've done great things Jesus, Your love never fails me My soul will sing you have done great things

The first line (the prechorus) is, as DJ Khaled would call it, a MAJOR KEY!!! As we go through the hard times in life, we should always have the mindset that God has a plan for us and even though we are struggling, we will end up getting to know God better. During these rough times I sometimes sing the chorus to myself. This helps me trust that God is in control in any situation I may be in.

VERSE 3

Thank You for the scars I bear

They declare that You are my healer How could I have seen your strength

If You never showed me my weakness?

I'm not going to go too in-depth into this verse as it is very similar to the previous two verses but this verse shows even more how in our times of weakness we can find God's strength.

BRIDGE

Through the fire and the flood You have never let me go And my soul sing You have done great things I am weak, You are strong You will always be my hope And my soul will sing You have done great things

My favorite part of the bridge is the third line. If you went to church as a little kid, you probably remember the song "Jesus Loves Me" in which we sang "We are weak but he is strong". Our admission that we are weak and He is strong seems like such a basic part of our faith, but it is also one of the hardest things to admit. A lot of times we can find ourselves thinking that we can do life on our own but when we fall into hard times we truly realize that we need God and that We are weak but He is strong.

For many of us students, midterms and finals are quickly approaching and that causes a lot of stress. As we go through this stressful time I challenge you to thank God for this time and allow yourself to use this time to grow closer to Him.

If you like this song and want to hear more Elevation songs, I recommend the 7-day devo on the YouVersion Bible app named after their album, "Wake Up The Wonder". It goes through some of my favorite songs and explains the meaning of the songs.

See you all next week for the next edition of Worship Song of the Week!

- E