Using Your Voice with Sandy Patty

Sandi Patty is the most awarded female vocalist in contemporary Christian music history. She has 40 Dove Awards, five Grammy awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three platinum records, five gold records, and eleven million units sold. She has released over 30 albums. Her music career took off when she sang her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner during the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 and has continue to grow over the past thirty years.

In addition to her successful music career, Patty has become an accomplished speaker and author. She has travelled with Women of Faith conferences since 2005. Her message is one that resonates with everyone, that freedom comes from learning how to move on, learn from your mistakes and let God use you in any circumstance. Her latest work, The Voice: Listening for God’s Voice and Finding Your Own releases from Zondervan on November 6, 2018.

In the foreword, Kathie Lee Gifford writes, ” What you are about to discover about Sandi in this book will shock you, upset you, and ultimately make you rejoice in the power of a life lived well with God…. Sandi’s story is one of deep suffering that even those closest to her never fathomed. I am so happy that this extraordinary woman is finally able to tell her story full throttle and unafraid.”

In The Voice, Sandi shares deeply intimate stories of her life and the empowering spiritual truths she’s learned. She offers readers wisdom to navigate the journey from voicelessness to discovering the voice God has given you. With a poignant history of sexual abuse, infidelity, divorce and crises of self-image, Sandi lived much of her life feeling unworthy of love or value. And like so many of us, she coped by living through the voices of others, allowing other people to prescribe her identity. As she performed around the world, Sandi met others just like her, who hid wounds behind quiet smiles and struggled to live with fractured identities.

“I will sing of your love and justice;to you, Lord, I will sing praise.I will be careful to lead a blameless life—when will you come to me?I will conduct the affairs of my house
with a blameless heart.I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do;I will have no part in it.”Psalm 101:1-3

Risen Reflections

Discover your voice. Whether it is taking care of the responsibilities that come with everyday life or a past hurt, sometimes it can be difficult to be share our personal story of faith. Take time to write down your journey of faith. It can be helpful to write it down. Write what your life was like before you met God, the circumstances leading up to how you met God, and then what made you decide to give your life to Christ. Make sure to include trials or hard times that God helped you through. It could be a financial hardship, medical challenge, or something that happened within your family. Share it with a friend, small group member or ministry leader and ask them to give you feedback. If you are having trouble sharing because of a past hurt, consider meeting with a counselor or pastor to help you process that experience. God wants us to experience freedom so that we can help set others free.

Use your platform. God wants us to share our story of how we met Him with others. It could be through a one-on-one conversation or an auditorium filled with people. He has placed people all around us that need to hear about the life-changing Gospel of Christ. Set aside time this weekend to ask God to show you opportunities in your life where you can share the message that He has given you. It could be within your Bible study or a ministry that you are involved in or it could be doing an outreach with a sports team, classmates, or through your church. Pray that God would soften the hearts of the people that He wants you to share His message with. Remember that it often takes people at least seven exposures to the Gospel message for them to come to Christ. Don’t get discouraged if someone doesn’t come to faith, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to continue to work in their heart.

Encourage others. It is easy in the Christian faith to go to church, attend a Bible study, be involved in ministry and pretend that everything is “good.” If you are a pastor, small group leader, or ministry leader, be open to sharing the difficult things God has helped you endure and how your faith has grown from that experience. You might be in the midst of it and it might not be perfect. But trust God to use you. As you share and open up, it will create an atmosphere for others to be willing to share their pain, trials, and trust God. While it might be difficult at first, pray and ask God to direct your conversations.

To watch the video of Sandi Patty sharing about her book, click here