“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

What comes to mind when you think of the word “hallelujah”? For me, I think of joy, praise, and wonder. It’s a word we use when great things happen in our lives, when we want to thank God for His abundant blessings. We witness a miracle, we receive forgiveness, we have an epiphany, and then we exclaim, “Hallelujah!” Yet Heather Williams takes a different approach. For her she says, through the pain and suffering, “in spite of it all, hallelujah!” She cries out in praise even through the trials. Doesn’t that seem odd, though? Why should we be happy to be hurting? God tells us that He loves when we praise Him through these times! He wants us to sing hallelujah all the time, especially when we’re hurting the most. At our lowest points, our hallelujah shows that we don’t praise God based on circumstance but because of who He is. When we cry hallelujah, we’re proclaiming that we trust in the Lord and believe his word when he says that in ALL things, he works for the good of those who love him. Even if the good is impossible to see now, we will understand someday and know God’s bigger purpose for it.

“And though it seems hard, I’m still trusting you Lord. Hallelujah.” What if we exclaimed Hallelujah all the time? What if we trusted in God, and really lived our lives like we believe that all things work together for good? Wherever you are in your life right now, take a moment to praise God. “Sing hallelujah, Sing hallelujah. Sing hallelujah. Amen.”

Scroll down to see what Heather says about the song and read the lyrics! Check out the whole album here. What can you sing hallelujah about today? Add your comments below!

Lyrics:

Jesus, please come

please come today

hear me

heal me

be near me I pray

I have fallen so far
flat on my face
I’m in need of your grace today
I stumble and fall
but in spite of it all
your love always stays the same
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Jesus, please come
please come today
break me
mold me
use me I pray

but don’t give up on me now
I’m so close to you now
I’m in need of your grace today
wipe the dirt off my face
hold me in your embrace
your love always saves the day
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I have fallen so far
flat on my face
I’m in need of your grace today
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Sing hallelujah
Sing hallelujah
Sing hallelujah amen

On my knees here I fall
in spite of it all
Hallelujah
And though it seems hard
I’m still trusting you Lord
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A couple of great artists that we work with have allowed us  to go behind the scenes of their home towns. They’re going to take you on a tour of some of their favorite spots, and will give you a better look at who they are and what they’re all about. We’ve got a fun 3 part video series you can look forward to over the coming weeks, and we’re kicking it off today with the amazing Heather Williams. Heather shared her powerful testimony with us a couple months back, so if you missed it click here to get caught up on her story PLUS you can preview her new EP and download her song from The “Catalyst Music Project there as well.

And now we begin our first installment of “Hometown Heroes.” Press play below and get the inside scoop on Heather’s favorite places to go in Florida.

You may remember Heather Williams from some of our previous posts, but if not, now is the time to get to know her and her music. Today is an exciting one because Heather’s brand new 4 song EP is out on iTunes, Amazon, etc, and to celebrate we’re streaming clips of the songs for you to preview PLUS we’ve got a free download of her song off the Catalyst Music Project. Heather also has an amazingly powerful story about overcoming life trials of abuse, homelessness, poverty and more, and she shared just a glimpse of that with us in the video below so don’t leave without watching it!

Preview Heather’s brand new EP here, and let us know what you think!

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Click here to go get these songs on iTunes!

Go get this week’s download from Heather- “Emmanuel,” off the Catalyst Music Project.

Heather talks about the process for writing her single “Hallelujah”

Hallelujah is a really special song to me. About a year after my son Caedmen died, I was sitting on the floor, and I had my husband’s guitar and I was just kind of strumming. He had shown me 3 or 4 chords, and I was just sitting there, and I was at such a place where I was so broken. I wasn’t mad a God and I wasn’t questioning God, but I had really just made a decision to keep an open dialogue with God; not just inside, but coming out of my mouth; because I’m not fooling him. And I think that’s like when you read about David in the bible where he’s really giving his heart to God through his mouth- I think God likes that, he likes that relationship. So I said ‘okay’ and started strumming from G to C and back and I just started asking Jesus to show up just right where I was. I think the cry of it, saying ‘Hallelujah’ and saying ‘even in this place on a floor with a guitar crying out in a blubbering mess I’m still going to say Halleluiah, and I’m still going to say that I love you, and I’m’ still going to want to glorify you in anything and everything.’ And me just being able to say ‘through all that I can stand because of God’ and maybe somebody can look at that and say ‘So can I!’ you know? Maybe they haven’t been through the loss of a child, but everybody has something. I’m convinced that every person on this planet has something that’s happened to them, or they’re going through now, or they’re going to go through that God needs to reach in, and they need to be able to say ‘God, I give it up to you.’ So, if I can be just a little bit of somebody having hope because they see that I went through it, and through a song like “Hallelujah.” -Heather