Total Praise (lyric video) - Andre Steele

This beautiful hymn was composed by Richard Smallwood. This arrangement is my own.
For much of our lives, as Christians or not, most of us will struggle to yield (or give) all of our lives (or hearts) to God, all of the time.
It’s in those gaps of unyielded life that our enemy, Satan, seeks to gain an influence over us.
Our lives have metaphorical and spiritual gates or doors - access points if you like - through which access is granted to God (i.e. to good) or to Satan, although in reality the choice is more subtle and sometimes difficult to define.
We're all familiar with the idea of someone putting up emotional barriers and with the concept of an interior life. We allow or cede access to ourselves, either by choice or by some other design - through eventualities, practices, belief - including philosophies that we buy into, behaviours that we encourage or are involved in and the words that we speak or that are spoken to us or about us, etc.
Having said that, we do not have to give Satan a foothold, or strong influence in our lives. We can reject negative influences that have invaded our lives. Jesus comes to make us free from the influence of evil. He makes our lives (spiritually) new. He breaks cycles of anxiety, fear, depression, rage, addiction etc. It sounds unlikely, but it is what God sent Jesus to accomplish for us on the cross.
Right now we open our hearts to You, our heavenly Father. Lord God, open our eyes to see where we compromise with wrongdoing or wrong thinking. We believe that You have come to set us - all those that are captive - free.
When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, as our Lord and saviour, we have power to evade any evil that wants to operate in our lives, because through Christ we exercise spiritual authority in the kingdom of God and we are no longer under the power of the kingdom of Satan. As Christians, we have a covenant with God through the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which means that Satan has no legal right to control or dominate our lives. God can evict him. Christian or not, we can be entangled and weighed down by what the bible terms bondages. These could include guilt, shame, condemnation, fear, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, anger, violence, pride, unbelief, immorality, addiction - any number of things. We can be free of them.
God gives us all the opportunity to be free of the bond of sin. God has taken us from darkness and translated us into the light of His kingdom. As a Christian sin dominates me in as much as I allow it to.
Psalm 24 verse 7 says Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Whomever we are, we can let God into our broken, messed up lives. We can ask for forgiveness, be forgiven and forgive those who have wronged us. When we repent of sin and realise that God is not holding us to account for our wrongs, we can release others from the unforgiveness that we have toward them.
Psalm 24 goes on to say in verse 8, Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
The power of God is greater than all the evil imaginable. Because he bore our sins upon the cross, dying for us and going down to hell to take its keys and then rise again, (death and hell not being able to be hold him captive), we too are not to be held captive in, or to be bound by sin (and the wages of sin - death).
verse 9 repeats an instruction in order to ermphasise the importance of the action of lifting up your heads.
We've got to look to God to be the author and finisher of our faith, to be the One who justifies us, the One who sets us free, the One who gives us liberty, the One from whom all our blessings flow, the One in whom we live and move and have our being. The One who is able to finish the good work that He has begun in us.
As the bible says in Hebrews 4:16, go boldly before God's throne of grace, that we may find mercy and grace to help in the time of need. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Do not be cast down. Do not be confounded. Do not despair. Do not give up. No matter how far away from God you might rate yourself, you may look to God for help, for strength, for salvation, for healing, for deliverance, for an encounter with Him. Look up. Believe that God exists and that He rewards those that seek Him diligently.
He wants to come into our hearts and to be our saviour. He wants those who have already allowed Him into their hearts to live in proximity to His abundant life. So let us I increase our expectation of God’s good intent and actions toward us.
Whether you are Christian or not you can pray this prayer:
Father, I turn away from my sin, knowing that Jesus has come to make my life new. Forgive me of my sins Lord and cleanse me I pray . Please come into my heart and live in me. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit I pray, in Jesus name. Thank you Lord. Amen

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Love this 🎉