I’m So Glad Jesus Lifted Me (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 860)
1 I’m so glad Jesus lifted me.
I’m so glad Jesus lifted me.
I’m so glad Jesus lifted me.
singing glory, hallelujah!
Jesus lifted me.
2 Satan had me bound, Jesus lifted me.
Satan had me bound, Jesus lifted me.
Satan had me bound, Jesus lifted me.
singing glory, hallelujah!
Jesus lifted me.
3 When I was in trouble, Jesus lifted me.
When I was in trouble, Jesus lifted me.
When I was in trouble, Jesus lifted me.
singing glory, hallelujah!
Jesus lifted me.
Text and Music: African American spiritual; Public Domain
Devotion
If there’s one sentence that encapsulates the American dream, it’s “You can be anything you want to be!” This is the gospel according to American culture: the promise that with hard work, nothing can stand in the way of our personal achievements.
As Jesus works on my heart, though, I’ve found that my dreams have shifted. My vision of “the good life” now has more to do with God’s dream than the American dream.
When it comes to being who God wants me to be, I find that patterns of sin “have me bound,” as the hymn says. My unconscious bias makes it hard for me to connect with my diverse neighbors; my patterns of busy-ness limit the space I can make for gratitude and joy; my habits of judgment override my vision of God’s goodness in myself and others.
Thank God that, in Jesus, I can find freedom from every kind of bondage!
Prayer
Liberating Jesus, set me free today. Let your dreams become my dreams. I ask you to release whatever is holding me back from loving the world as you do. Amen.