Prayerful Improvisations Podcast

This month’s Third Week Throwback is inspired by the following quote: “Home is the place where that first love dwells and speaks gently to us. It requires discipline to come home and listen, especially when our fears are so noisy that they keep driving us outside of ourselves. But when we grasp the truth that we already have a home, we may at last have the strength to unmask the illusions created by our fears and continue to return again and again and again.” – Henry Nouwen, Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective

This week’s new improvisations were inspired by the following poem:

Love comes in many different forms, but none as profound as sacrificial love. May these hymns about this amazing kind of love remind you of the One that made you to love and be loved.

This week’s extended improv is to help you meditate, pray, be still and soak in God’s presence without being distracted by too many changes in the music. I pray it is also helpful for those of you battling anxiety, depression or other health situations. Know that you are deeply loved by our Heavenly Father and many of those around you.

This Third Week Throwback includes wintertime music. While many parts of the world are experiencing warmer weather, wintertime reminds us that restoration is coming, the hope of new life is on the horizon, and we can be “washed whiter than snow.”

So many things in this life can easily burden us. In the Bible, we hear Jesus inviting us to come into His presence and release our burdens to Him, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).

The King…. today we often associate royalty with fame, fortune, or even scandal. Many monarchies are in place because of tradition instead of governing a people. When we think of God as King, however, we find a unique relationship like no other—an all-powerful ruler who considers His people to be His children, His treasured possessions, His friends. What an amazing and loving King we serve! May these hymns about the King bless your day.

On the fourth week of each month in 2020 this podcast will feature an extended continuous improvisation. The purpose of this is to help you meditate, pray, be still and soak in God’s presence without being distracted by too many changes in the music. I pray it is also helpful for those of you battling anxiety, depression or other health situations. “Be still” and be renewed.

On the third week of each month in 2020 this podcast will include music from my previously recorded albums based on a particular theme. This month the focus is on God’s provision and how He blesses us in so many ways, even ways in which we sometimes don’t see, or think are not blessings because they may be causing pain in the moment. We don’t always see what God is doing in our lives in the moment, but if we trust Him we can be assured that eventually we will see the blessing that flows so freely from the “fountain of life.”

On the second week of each month in 2020 this podcast will feature new original improvisations based on a thematic idea. This month the music is focused on trust. It can be difficult to trust someone or believe in something when we’ve been hurt. But God promises to always be with us (“Emmanuel” = God with us) even in the difficult times. And while it may be easy for us to put the blame on God and turn away in distrust, God reminds us that “in quietness and trust is our strength” and He can be One to trust since He never goes back on His Word. I hope you can put your trust in the Lord today, even if it seems far beyond your capacity. Trust Him to help you trust!