Showing someone your heart can be a scary thing. To have someone else in the world know you inside out, all your dreams, hopes, fears, circumstances, dashed memories and ultimate triumphs, everything within your innermost being; is something even I can’t necessarily fathom. Sure, sharing your heart with your spouse and your family is one thing but to actually talk to someone else (not related to you) and share everything about yourself and hope their reaction isn’t one of disdain or dismay can take courage from the person sharing. But there comes a point when you realize-sharing with friends and family is one thing-you can see the reaction on their faces and whether it’s of approval or disappointment. Sharing your innermost thoughts with God, who indeed already knows what you’re thinking, feeling, and even believing is on a whole other level entirely.
Here’s My Heart, originally recorded by David Crowder on his own album Neon Steeple, there is a vulnerableness about “Here’s My Heart” that I haven’t really heard much in worship music in a long time- perhaps even since songs like “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” and “Shout to the Lord”. In it, we are shown a heartfelt and poignant plea, from us to the Lord, as the lyrics declare “here’s my heart, Lord, speak what is true”. What a vulnerable and confronting melody and lyric line to keep repeating.
Am I even willing enough to show God my deepest thoughts and secrets (because honestly, everyone has them, whether we say so or not), even with the full knowledge that he’s already known them in the first place? What does it say about my own relationship with God if I am often hesitant about coming to Him in the first place with my own queries and questions? Do I really think God isn’t able to grant me what I wish to occur in my own life and in the lives of others? These questions are rhetorical, and I’m sure everyone thinks these things every now and again. To give everything to God, and I do mean everything (your thoughts, your actions, what you do on your own when no one is watching) can be a difficult feat to accomplish, if not for the power of God’s help alone.
There’s a Bible verse in Romans that speaks about offering everything that we are to God as a living sacrifice. That everything we do and say is a representation of what we believe, and how we live is a mirror of whether we ourselves think we should offer everything to God or not. To offer everything to God, to give Him our hearts like a man gives his wife (and vice versa) requires an openness like no other. It requires us to be honest, to our friends, family and our Father in heaven. It keeps us accountable and while at times it may be hard or difficult to say what we’re thinking out loud to God when He knows it already, it is nevertheless therapeutic for us as we are reminded that once we give our hearts, our burden becomes lighter. What we carry on our own can be dropped at the foot of the cross once we discover the vastness of God’s love for each of us. Showing who we are in reference to who God is, “Here’s My Heart” reminds us that ‘…I am found, I am Yours, I am loved, I’m made pure, I have life, I can breathe, I am healed, I am free…’, all the while showing us that ‘…You are strong, You are sure, You are life, You endure, You are good, always true, You are light, breaking through…’
As I finish off this post about giving our hearts, whether to God for the first time, or even multiple times over, or even to someone else (maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even between close friends); what this song has shown me is to be vulnerable, even if it means to open up more than we may like to at that current point in time. I don’t like being vulnerable, but I’ve learned it really lets those around you, know who you really are. It shows that you are human. Being vulnerable requires honesty and openness, trusting God that the person we’re divulging our lives to won’t share or shout it from the rooftops to anyone else (not unless it’s something worth shouting about).
What has “Here’s My Heart” meant to you over the last few months? Check out the music video for the song below (from I Am They), and let me know what the song means to you personally in the comments. Til next time.
Heart of Worship 