Hello World,
I first heard of this story a couple of weeks ago, but as I was preparing to go out of town, I didn’t have the time to break this story down like I wanted to on this blog so I thought I would wait so I can get all up in it…
Some weeks ago, a wicked man snatched then nine-year-old Willie Myrick from his southwest Atlanta driveway into his car, according to police. The man drove the boy, who was in the back seat, around throughout Atlanta’s streets for several hours. Instead of panicking, the boy sang “Every Praise” the whole time until the man finally released him in East Point! Yes, the boy lived to tell his story and to help him celebrate his 10th birthday, gospel artist Hezekiah Walker, who wrote the song, flew from New York to Atlanta to meet the boy who used his song to help him get released from the kidnapper! They met at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church (just down the street from my church) where Willie told the crowd his testimony! As we love to say now, won’t He do it?!!!
There are some who would chalk this story up to happenstance or a mere case of luck, but I know that Willie’s praise got him released!!! In fact, we can see several examples of the power of praise in God’s word! The most awesome example that I know is when Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison. Instead of tending to their wounds or falling into despair, they praised God right there in their cells! What happened next should make all prisoners, either figuratively or literally, start clearing their throats and brushing up on Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do to belt out a praise song…
Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. Acts 16:26
I have a story about the power of praise in my own life…While my story is not as dramatic as the stories of Willie and Paul & Silas, I can testify too…Right after I graduated from college, I was unable to get a full-time job in my field so I got a job at a law firm. I figured that having a paycheck was better than incessantly job hunting for the perfect job…But every day on my lunch break, I did go to the nearby Kinko’s to use the computer and fax résumés. This was back in ’97 y’all…
Working at that law firm made me feel like I was in prison. I enjoyed working with the people, but the job itself was as boring as sitting in the class of the driest college professor you’ve ever had. Except going to college wasn’t even necessary for this job and every second I spent there made me feel like all like all of the brain cells that I had strengthened by four years at University of Georgia evaporated each time I showed up. In fact, one morning, after just being at work for a few minutes, my boss sent me home because I couldn’t stop crying. I don’t even remember when I started crying. I was just sitting at my desk and all of a sudden, it seemed, I was heaving and my nose was red. I just couldn’t fathom that a scoring a reasonably high score on the English portion of the SAT, skipping freshman English, cultivating a high GPA and completing four internships prepared me to be a file clerk…Yes, my entire job was to keep track of files. Manilla folders and paper cuts became like second nature to me…
Within a few months of working there, I started to meet or meat with a bucket of KFC original recipe chicken and biscuits on a weekly basis to express my feelings. And I told everyone who asked me how I was doing that I hated my job! And I saw no way out of my prison because no other employer wanted to hire me..Finally, my uncle, who is a pastor, threw a life preserver to me to keep me from drowning…He said to simply stop bad-mouthing the job and speak positively about the job no matter what…He told me this verse…
The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21
So because of that conversation, I began speaking positively about my job even though I still felt like I was showing up to have my nails plucked from one fingers one by one or have cold water dripped on my head a drop at a time…Within two months of that conversation, I got a job at gospel record company where I worked with Larry Tinsley, radio host of “Sunday Morning Praise” on V-103 and just a nice man…In fact, Tinsley, who seems to know everybody gospel singer, interviewed Hezekiah Walker about God using him to write that powerful song…
What we need to realize is that God is in everything and nothing happens to us without His permission! And once we demonstrate that we know that God is sovereign and working it out by our praise, I believe that God will release His power in our lives…
Thank you Willie for your testimony…It is a real-life example of Psalm 8:2…
Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
So what is your favorite praise song? My favorite praise song is Yolanda Adam’s song “The Battle is Not Yours.” God used this song to help me go through….
Any thoughts?
Below is a video in which Willie Myrick and Hezekiah Walker are interviewed by my Soror Blayne Alexander of 11AliveNews…