No other name...Jesus
in the music. Even music without words has a message that the artist wants to share with those who will hear it.
During a retreat that I was invited to preach at, the group sung one of my favorite songs, titled “Forever Reign.” Over and over again, the bridge of the song says, “My heart will sing no other name… Jesus.” The Holy Spirit took my heart to a passage of scripture found in John, chapter 4. It’s a familiar passage that I had read many times. It tells of when Jesus went to a city in Samaria to meet with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. It was in the middle of the day and Jesus told the woman to give him a drink of water, because he was thirsty from his travel. Verse 9 reads, “Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Jesus told her that if she would ask, He would give her living water and that she would never thirst again. She probably thought Jesus was crazy, and in verse 15 she said, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Then Jesus told her to go get her husband. When she told him that she didn’t have a husband, He replied “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.” Then a little more into the passage the woman said to Jesus “I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
Then Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Here was a lady who was starving for true love. Here is a woman, whose heart had sung the name of at least FIVE different men. A woman who carried way more than a water pale every day. She carried the heavy shame of her past. A shame that caused her to have to make the trip to the well at the hottest part of the day, to avoid the other women.
Her life was completely changed though; when Jesus went out of his way, literally, to meet her where she was and offer her forgiveness. Her race didn’t stop Him. Her gender didn’t stop Him, and the punishment she faced because of her sin drove Him. Then in one act of trust, she found all that she ever longed for in a relationship.
You see, when we try to put our hope, faith and trust in other people or other things, it leaves us searching over and over again for someone or something to satisfy our longings. What we find instead is ourselves searching for fulfillment that only comes through a real relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope you have one, because when we look for complete satisfaction in others, we set ourselves up for disappointment and others for failure. Be Blessed.