Matt Maher – Because He Lives (Devotional)
(Mark 16:1-13)
Because He Lives
ItΓÇÖs a hard thing when you fully surrender to the present, and you give that to God, and then you turn around and you are able to slowly trust the mystery of an uncertain future and know that the certainty in it, is God.
Early in our walk, when we donΓÇÖt know God well, we pray, ΓÇÿIΓÇÖm headed toward disaster. I need a different course for my life.” We reach a point where we mature in our faith, and we realize God already has the course of our life taken care of. ItΓÇÖs a hard thing when you fully surrender to the present, and you give that to God, and then you turn around and you are able to slowly trust the mystery of an uncertain future and know that the certainty in it, is God. Part of the beauty of the Gospel is the resurrection. Sometimes things have to die in order for them to come to life.
I wanted to share a little more about how we wrote this song. The title ΓÇ£Because He LivesΓÇ¥ is not new – it was a song written by Bill Gaither. I was writing with a couple of people and someone brought up ΓÇ£WouldnΓÇÖt it be great if we could write a new song with the title ΓÇÿBecause He LivesΓÇÖ?ΓÇ¥
ItΓÇÖs an interesting thought that in our lives as Christians, everything comes after the resurrection. Because Jesus lives, fill in the blank…
So we started writing the song with a fragment of another song I was working on with a couple of other writers with the lyrics ΓÇ£AmenΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£Let my song join the one that never ends.ΓÇ¥ We realized that the lyric ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm alive, IΓÇÖm alive because He livesΓÇ¥ was a natural fit and I ended up showing the song to a friend of mine, Chris Tomlin. It was then we realized that the lyrics ΓÇ£I can face tomorrow, every fear is goneΓÇ¥ which were in the original lyrics of Bill GaitherΓÇÖs song. We went to Bill Gaither and he gave his blessing.
I think thatΓÇÖs always been a bit part of my ministry – unifying the church and bringing voices from different streams together.┬á
So what we have is a song that is the result of a lot of peopleΓÇÖs efforts. I think thatΓÇÖs always been a bit part of my ministry – unifying the church and bringing voices from different streams together.