Amazing God: You Care For Every Heavy Heart
Brenton Brown

Sometimes it feels as if the burdens of this life are just too heavy to bear. Sometimes they weigh down on us so hard that the thought of anyone being able to carry them seems ludicrous. And then realizing that this kind of suffering is occurring across the world in thousands of cultures and millions of homes staggers and overwhelms us. Surely there are no hands strong enough to carry the weight of the world.

As a worship leader I have the privilege of traveling across the nations and listening to the growing anthem of worship rising to God from so many countries and cultures. I’ve looked out on people across the world who have endured enormous storms – from failing health to civil war to economic deprivation to acts of violence and terror to real hunger and real brokenness. And time and again I am surprised at the power of God to triumph over and transcend the most difficult circumstances life can bring. Worship rises from hearts placed in the most unbelievable circumstances on this planet. Are all these worshippers people of extraordinary faith? Perhaps they are. But what they definitely have in common is not the type of worshiper they are, but the type of God they worship. A God who can inspire inexplicable peace and joy in the middle of heartache and destruction.

One of the most extraordinary times of worship I remember is a small city hall packed full of Christians in a region of Eastern Europe called Kosova. A group of us from England and South Africa had traveled over to share what God had done in our country. I was expecting a room full of broken and destitute people. Women and children outnumbered the men due to the recent war, and there were many widows and orphans. The church in this predominantly Muslim region was not much more than 15 years old. But as the first notes of music sounded through that cold, neon lit hall, the place erupted in joyful, abandoned worship to the Lord. I can clearly remember hearing the sound of weeping and turning around to see my friend Marc James on the electric guitar in floods of tears, amazed at the power of God! While we were expecting brokenness God was revealing beauty and grace.

So cut to a hospital room in Southern California 6 years later. Again I can see a face so clearly. But this time it’s the nurse holding the sonogram, searching for our daughter’s heartbeat and realizing with horror that that was a sound none of us would ever hear again. A week away from her due date, in what had been a very normal pregnancy, our little girl Grace died in the womb. My wife had spent the last 9 months preparing the most beautiful little nursery for her first-born child. Her parents were flying in from South Africa. Friends were emailing her tips and best wishes. Life held so much promise. But instead of looking forward to the first blush of parenthood, Jude was facing the nightmare of having to deliverer her first daughter, still born. It was a weight so crushing, so heavy, that it felt too hard for us to bear. I wondered if we were ever going to make it through the despair and sadness that filled our hearts that day. I will never forget the long list of friends I phoned to tell the awful news. At the start of life death had arrived and taken our little girl.

I remember feeling so much despair and sadness in the following months that when I considered all the tragedy taking place on the earth I was overwhelmed. I thought about how people across the globe were experiencing hardship and loss as great and greater than ours, and it left a gaping hole in my heart. We staggered beneath the weight of grief. We trudged through each day, numb with loss and bewildered. But we also remembered the saints. We remembered the faces and the stories and accounts of God’s deliverance and comfort from saints across the earth. We remembered the songs of God’s faithfulness through testing. And slowly, like the passing of the seasons, we began to see that our God is not just a good friend in a difficult situation. He is also the Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth. Right now the entire universe rests upon the word of his power. Can he bring beauty out of ashes? Can he turn tears into songs of joy. Are his hands strong enough to bear not just my burdens, but also the burdens of the whole earth, the heaviest burdens of our heart? Is He up to the task? Absolutely. His Hands are strong enough. He can handle it. The creator of all things can heal what He has made. He can clean what has been stained. Through him all things are possible. He can bear the weight not just of my burdens but of yours too.

It really boggles the mind. But He can bear the weight of the world. He is an amazing, mind boggling God! His peace carried us through Grace’s death and continues to do so. His love, faithful as the dawn, has given rise to “Amazing God” and “Adoration,” songs that join a multitude of anthems of praise lifted by the cloud of witnesses across time and all across the earth. His hands are strong enough. He can heal the pain. He can clean the stain. He can turn our tears into songs of praise. He’s an amazing GOD.

You’re amazing God, You’re amazing God

You can bear the weight of every heavy heart

You can heal the pain, You can clean the stain

You can turn our tears into songs of praise

You’re amazing God

More information on Brenton can be found at www.BrentonBrown.com. Full “Amazing God” and “Adoraton” lyrics and chords can be found at http://www.brentonbrown.com/songs.html.

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You’ll want to take a few moments to check out Kathryn’s post on “Where Our Treasure Is.” As always, Kathryn speaks from the riches of her own journey into intimate friendship with God, and her local church leadership life. Check it out here: Kathryn Scott at Worship Central – Where Our Treasure Is.

Here is the post below from WorshipCentral:

We are right at the start of building a place of our own for church. It is the most exciting and daunting project all at once. It’s the opportunity to facilitate so much more of what we’re called to do a community – and to create space in our place for those who haven’t yet made their journey towards Jesus.

It feels very grown up!

One of the things that excites me most though as I look at the steps right in front us now is the opportunity to give again.

It’s the things that are the most important to us that cost us the most. And, in the most wonderful way, they are meant to – even our money!! Of course it never takes long to remember that everything we own has been given to us by God in the first place – in real life, it all belongs to Him!!

What I love is the chance to give back: to shout a loud ‘I love you God’, to offer a renewed ‘I’ll follow you wherever you go’, to treasure all over again the stuff of the kingdom over the stuff around our lives.

When we give, we remember that we are not our own. When we remember that we are not our own, we turn our attention fully again to the One who gave everything for us….and in that moment, everything that we cherish most is right in front of our eyes.

Katherine has been leading worship since 1997. Mentored by Brian Doerksen (Faithful One, Come now is the time…), she wrote and recorded the song ‘Hungry’ for VIneyard Music in ‘99. Since then she has recorded two solo albums with Integrity including songs like ‘At the foot of the cross (Ashes for beauty), ‘You’re Good Lord’, ‘Search me, know me’ and ‘I Belong’. Katherine lives with her husband Alan and two little girls in Northern Ireland, where they pastor the Causeway Coast Vineyard together. For more visit www.hungryworshipper.com