BETWEEN THE LINER NOTES
CeCe Winans: Pure Love for the Father
By Hannah Goodwyn
Associate CBN.com Producer
CBN.com
– Genuine and untainted love for God is CeCe Winans’ heart. She embraces His everlasting love and shows it to the world through her music and life. Each song she sings, each stage she takes, she looks to Jesus as her strength and peace.
In her recent release, Purified, this Grammy-winner puts her whole heart and voice into sharing the good news and comforting words to those who face difficult situations.
Unaware of what life would throw in the way of each footstep this year, CeCe finished this new CD with the hope that it persuades Christians to take hold and obey God’s command to heal the brokenhearted.
This new album “reinforces what real love is,” she said. One new song, “He’s Concerned,” describes how real love can comfort the hurting with encouraging truth.
So while your tears are flowing through a time of mourning,
He is here to lift your heavy heart,
‘Cause he is in love with you.
He knows. He cares. He sees.
He’s there. He’ll carry you.
He’s concerned about you.
“When I recorded the song ‘He’s Concerned,’ I could barely get through it because God has been so faithful to me,” she said. “He has been there throughout my whole life. Through every stage of my life, he has proven himself to be God, and to be a healer.”
Earlier this year, a few of CeCe’s friends needed this healing power when they lost loved ones in tragic circumstances. She sent them copies of her new CD, hoping that the songs would speak peace to their hurting hearts. Not knowing that she would have to face a tragedy in her own life, CeCe prayed and sought God for their healing.
This past June, the Winans family grieved just as CeCe’s friends had months before.
“Wow, it was rough, it was rough,” were the muffled words CeCe used to describe this time in her life when she needed to embrace and acknowledge that God cares for his created people deeply. The songs God had given to her and her producers for this new album began to ring true for her personally.
The sudden loss of her brother, Ronald, was possible to take only because of “God’s loving arms making all the difference in the world,” she said.
“To experience death, but yet to experience joy at the same time because we know he is in a better place,” was a blessing. Even though Ronald is gone from this life, CeCe has faith that God will take her from day to day. He will carry her.
But for any of His children to fully experience this loving comfort, it is important to live in the Father’s love.
His presence is “like the air I breathe,” she said. “It’s my life.”
Since her last album, Throne Room, CeCe has learned many things about being in the Father’s presence and how to live worshipping God every moment. She understands that there is no limit to how far you go into God.
“You can go deeper and deeper into worship, and really you’re losing yourself each time you go deeper,” she said.
By immersing in His presence, Christians can open themselves up to His power and great possibilities.
“True worship is life changing,” she said. “Whenever I go into the presence of the Lord, I come out different.”
There is no confusion about life and circumstances when you go to God.
“You’ll come out totally unconfused,” she said. “Not that you always have how God is going to work it out, because He doesn’t always share that. But you are reminded of who God is.”
CeCe believes that sometimes Christians do not remember who they serve. If God was our focus and we realized how great God is, then we would not worry or fear, she said.
In His presence, “you’re reminded that He is always in control no matter what is going on,” CeCe said. “You’re reminded that He is on your side, and if God can be for you, who can be against you.”
Life is full of disappointments, but Christians can lean on God’s love. Through her own rough patches, CeCe realized that “healing is a great part of love,” and “love is always the answer to whatever we are going through.”
Her plan is simple now. She simply wants to “encourage people to love, and remind people that they are loved.” This is her life’s mission – to show God’s love to his creation and her overwhelming, pure love for Him and every human being He created on this earth.
Losing her older brother was hard, but CeCe is looking forward to the day she will see him again and her Heavenly Father face to face for the first time. When CeCe opens her eyes to behold her King, she knows what her response will be to her loving God.
“I’m going to save a dance…,” she said. “I love to rejoice. That’s my favorite thing that I do here. And now my brother Ronald’s there, and he is already worshipping. So we will just join the choir and continue to sing His praises.”
Until that day, CeCe remains a loving daughter dedicated to the work her Father has for her life and her voice.
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