I
iloma
Guest
Hello! 
I've recently come across a singer, Matt Papa. His Eastern music album was freely downloadable on noisetrade (By the way, I highly suggest that site, where you can freely and legally download awesome music in a wide variety of genres. You are encouraged to leave a tip, but it's ok if you can't afford that.)
"Open Hands" is the song that I like the most from him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYxI38hLIZA
A remarkable song from his Eastern album in my opinion is: "The Crucible of God (Gethsemane)" that describes the inner fight of the Lord as He was praying alone that night in the garden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzYt-u4uPRE
I also follow him on facebook, and happily he is not flooding with all sorts of useless photos and commercial stuff, but there are regularly posted short, concise and thought-provoking messages, that I love to read!
But before I'd go too far, let me tell about a blog post of Matt, that I felt so relevant to my own life. The title of the post is: "The problem with seeking God's will". I myself was many times thinking about the subject and felt that there is something wrong about my despair thinking what if I somehow fail to do something in my life according to God's will, I would mess up my life and loose that "perfect life" that He had planned for me, and that I could have got otherwise.
I will embed a link to that blog post, but also copy here a few sentences, that I'd like to highlight.
http://www.mattpapa.com/2014/05/the-problem-with-seeking-gods-will/
"If I really believed that God was good….that He was my dad who was all powerful and all knowing and all loving….then I wouldn’t be repeatedly begging him to lead me with this certain twinge of anxiety. I would relax. Dad’s got me. Chill."
...
" I want my best life now, not Jesus. Really what I have been asking is….”God make my life go perfectly”. “Make it exceptional.” “Make my life epic.”"
...
"Maybe God doesn’t want your life to be epic. Maybe He wants it to be normal. Maybe He wants your heart to be epic. And the path to seeing this accomplished is….your heart made more like his….will actually not come through the achievement of your plans but through their mutilation. God, for His children, will patiently and lovingly deny them of their desires until what they desire is Him." (Matt Papa)
There is a wonderful song (not by Matt Papa, but by Indelible Grace), that a friend sent me when I was broken as my life turned out differently than what I had expected. All my plans seemed to crash, and success seemed to have said to me goodbye. --->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cnEDUMfPXs
I hope you'll find these helpful/inspirational/encouraging.
imola
I've recently come across a singer, Matt Papa. His Eastern music album was freely downloadable on noisetrade (By the way, I highly suggest that site, where you can freely and legally download awesome music in a wide variety of genres. You are encouraged to leave a tip, but it's ok if you can't afford that.)
"Open Hands" is the song that I like the most from him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYxI38hLIZA
A remarkable song from his Eastern album in my opinion is: "The Crucible of God (Gethsemane)" that describes the inner fight of the Lord as He was praying alone that night in the garden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzYt-u4uPRE
I also follow him on facebook, and happily he is not flooding with all sorts of useless photos and commercial stuff, but there are regularly posted short, concise and thought-provoking messages, that I love to read!
But before I'd go too far, let me tell about a blog post of Matt, that I felt so relevant to my own life. The title of the post is: "The problem with seeking God's will". I myself was many times thinking about the subject and felt that there is something wrong about my despair thinking what if I somehow fail to do something in my life according to God's will, I would mess up my life and loose that "perfect life" that He had planned for me, and that I could have got otherwise.
I will embed a link to that blog post, but also copy here a few sentences, that I'd like to highlight.
http://www.mattpapa.com/2014/05/the-problem-with-seeking-gods-will/
"If I really believed that God was good….that He was my dad who was all powerful and all knowing and all loving….then I wouldn’t be repeatedly begging him to lead me with this certain twinge of anxiety. I would relax. Dad’s got me. Chill."
...
" I want my best life now, not Jesus. Really what I have been asking is….”God make my life go perfectly”. “Make it exceptional.” “Make my life epic.”"
...
"Maybe God doesn’t want your life to be epic. Maybe He wants it to be normal. Maybe He wants your heart to be epic. And the path to seeing this accomplished is….your heart made more like his….will actually not come through the achievement of your plans but through their mutilation. God, for His children, will patiently and lovingly deny them of their desires until what they desire is Him." (Matt Papa)
There is a wonderful song (not by Matt Papa, but by Indelible Grace), that a friend sent me when I was broken as my life turned out differently than what I had expected. All my plans seemed to crash, and success seemed to have said to me goodbye. --->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cnEDUMfPXs
I hope you'll find these helpful/inspirational/encouraging.
imola