EVERYTHING
Today in our service we had a deacon ordination. As I prayed about what to do music wise for the service, I really wanted the songs to be songs that meant something to Garrett, who was being ordained. So we met on wednesday and went through some song choices and put together this worship set:
Call to Worship
“Be Glorified”
“Lord, Be Glorified”
Offering
“Pure”
Testimony
“Shout to the Lord”
“How Great Thou Art”
Message
Deacon Ordination
Response & Invitation
“I Surrender All”
Benediction
“The Family Prayer Song”
The service was great! It was really awesome to be involved in the deacon ordination of a friend. What an honor to be able to lead songs that mean something to the one being set apart today. It was also awesome to be able to be among the ordained men to pray for Garrett and Cortney as they make this step of faith to serve.
Probably one of my favorite songs this morning was one that I really didn’t lead. Cortney sang the song “Pure.” Paula-Beth played piano and sang BGVs, Reed played the djembe, and I played the guitar and sang BGVs. Having just the piano, guitar, and djembe really gave the song a neat acoustic feel. Even though this was a “Special Music” it really tied right into the rest of the worship set.
“Pure” is one of my favorite worship songs and has amazing lyrics. Here they are:
Your love is pure
Your love is precious
Your love is all I need
Your love surrounds me
Your love astounds me
Your love is ev’rything
I run to You
When my heart is weak
I cling to You
You’re all I seek
It’s my heart’s desire
To be close to You
Here in Your arms
I’ll find my strength
Ev’rything I want
Ev’rything I hope in
Ev’rything my heart cries out for
This song is an amazing prayer to God. A Prayer saying “God, Your love is pure, precious all I need. God Your love surrounds me, astounds me, You are Everything.” Seriously if we really think about God’s love for us it should totally blow us away. I mean, why should God love me that much? I don’t always spend time with Him, I often put Him on the back burner of my life, and I don’t share Him enough with people around me. In spite of this, God still loves me! John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” and Romans 5:8 says “. . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So we know that God loves us because of what His scripture says, and the song exemplifies that with the first verse– His love is pure, precious, all we need, etc. but do we really show it? Let’s look at the chorus to answer that:
“I run to You when my heart is weak” – When we are at our weakest do we run to God or run to other people?
“I cling to You You’re all I seek” - Do we cling to God, and do we seek Him more than anything else in this world?
“It’s my heart’s desire To be close to You” – is it truly our heart’s desire to be with God? Ask yourself that next time you look down at your watch because the preacher is preaching a little long! (I’m talking to myself too!) Seriously though, do we desire to spend time with Him?
Then in this last part of the chorus we find a truth– no matter what we do we will find strength when we are wrapped in the arms of God: “Here in Your arms I’ll find my strength”
All I can say is WOW! Yeah, maybe I falter on some of those things, I don’t always run to Him when I’m weak, I don’t always cling to Him and seek Him in everything I do, my heart’s desire isn’t always to spend time with Him, but you know what. . . .In HIS arms, I find strength. In HIS arms I can run to Him when I’m weak, I can cling to His Arms and seek HIM, and I can with all my heart be near to Him. . .IN HIS ARMS. I guess the point I’m getting at is, when we allow ourselves to be carried in HIS arms, those other things naturally happen. When we realize His love for us, we naturally want to spend time with God. . .and that leads us to the bridge:
“EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR!”
Wow!! I love this! I think it’s awesome that in the song these phrases continue to build and then the song closes with a prayerful repeat. WHEN we realize God’s love for us then we can truly say, “EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR” is GOD!
I hope all that made sense. What a beautiful prayer/song that we can sing to God in a corporate worship setting, or even in a private setting. Thank You, Kari Jobe, for sharing your prayer with us!
Again, please leave comments for me! I want to know what your thoughts are on my thoughts!
This is also my first blog entry as part of the Sunday Setlists over on Fred McKinnon’s blog. Good to be a part of the Sunday Setlist group!!
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