Welcome to Paul Tripp's Wednesday's Word podcast. I'm Dalton from the Paul Trip

Ministries team. And each week, I'll read aloud Paul's popular Wednesday's word devotional,

short, powerful reflections that connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

You can get each week's devotional straight to your inbox by subscribing at

paultrip.com slash Wednesday or find it any time on our website, the Paul Tripp app,

or on Facebook and Instagram.

This week, Paul reflects on a lifelong legacy of hym singing and explains how singing

the truths of the gospel, at home and every day, shapes faith and guards the hearts of the next generation.

Here's this week's Wednesday's work.

You might have heard me tell this story before.

Every Saturday night, my siblings and I would take a bath and then deliver our shoes to our dad to be polished, all in preparation for the Sunday morning service at the Toledo Gospel Tabernacle. There was never a debate about whether we would be going. There was no need to fit church into the family schedule. I don't even remember rushing out the door or being late. We always sat in the very first row, because the weekend schedule of the trip family was planned around the one thing that we would never even think of missing. Corporate worship. For that, I will be forever grateful. But there's something else that marked my upbringing. I was blessed to be raised in a singing family. My sister was a very talented pianist, and my mother had seemingly memorized the entire hymnal. My mother would say to my sister, play 402, or play 259, and they both knew the hymns by number, so we sang all the time. When my mom was on her deathbed, she was in and out of a coma for about a week. My three siblings and I were in the hospital, gathered around

her, and we knew the way to usher her into glory was to sing hymns to her, the hymns that we had all sung and memorized as kids. Although she was unable to communicate with us, I would look down, and in silence, she was mouthing the words of the hymns. That's how deeply embedded they were and her soul.

Over the course of that final week of her life in the hospital,

we had sung so many hymns that I leaned down and jokingly whispered in her ear, Mom, we're out of hymns. We're going to sing you the Beatles. But I literally got to watch my mom sing her way into the presence of Jesus. I'm so thankful for that legacy and for the emphasis that my family put on singing the classic hymns of the faith.

I would encourage you and your family to sing hymns more often too.

Every day, in fact, if possible, don't just wait till Sunday for corporate worship to sing songs of the faith.

The righteous shall live by faith, and you need to eat more than just one nutrient-rich meal a week to survive. Sing in the bathroom as you prepare for the day and as you end the night before bed. Sing in the car on the way to school or on the way to sports practice. Sing in the kitchen as you're making meals. Sing to yourself and sing with your spouse. If you have children, sing to your children or sing with them. And don't be embarrassed if you can't hold a tune. Think about what you're doing when you sing the doctrines of the Christian faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ into the ears, hearts, mind, and soul of your kids. You're protecting them from falsehood. And what could be more important in your life than being one of God's primary tools to shape the human soul? And singing is one of the tools God uses. If you're

struggling to know where to begin with hymn singing, I'm excited to point you to a free

five-day devotional series that I created with the worship initiative. You can sign up for a free

account on their Sing platform with just your cell phone number. That will give you free access to

listen to me Teach-on and Robbie C sing five of my all-time favorite hymns.

Click the link in the description to access today.

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