A Heart on Fire

I am continually confronted with the propelling nature of Jesus. He should either be everything to us, or nothing at all. His teachings and model of living do not give an option for neutrality. In Revelation 3, Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea and says they should be anything but lukewarm. James talks about a friendship with the world that makes us an enemy of God, and 1 John talks about how if we live in disobedience, the truth is not in us. We do not get to pick and choose. There is an all encompassing requirement in following the Lord. You’re either all in, or you may as well be all out.

An intense call. How do we do this? How do we give God our everything when we are broken people?

Psalm 51 is written by David, who was remembered as a man after God’s own heart. He was not a man who had it all together. He had external and internal battles throughout his life, but we see God raising him up as a leader. In Psalm 72, it says that David led with integrity of heart and skillful hands. Somehow, David was chosen by God and developed this reputation with the Lord through his life (who truly sees our hearts) despite his failures. Where did that come from? Why was God so pleased with this man?

We see over and over in David’s life a fascination and fixation on the presence of the Lord. He spent many years in hiddenness with the Lord before becoming King, writing Psalms and building a relationship with God. In Psalm 27 he says, “One thing I ask, this only do I seek.” Even in the midst of battle David knew the best place to be. In Psalm 51, he says, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” He was a man after the presence of God. David also recognized that clean hands and a pure heart must be created in us by God. He could not clean his own hands or heart, but must receive that from the Lord.

This is what the Lord desires of us. A humble and broken spirit yielded to the Lord. He knows we cannot live perfectly, and that is why Jesus came to earth. Giving Jesus everything does not mean we are perfect all the time. It means we are captured by His beauty and deeply desire His presence above all else. Living from this place, we can freely receive His love, grace, and correction.

We will either be driven by the beauty of Jesus, or strive out of our own strength. 

Tonight, Church of the City New York is releasing a song called Heart on Fire, inspired by Psalm 51 and Revelation 3. There are two small words in this song that often stand out to me: Give me. I want a heart that continually burns for the Lord, but the reality is, my heart is fleeting. There is nothing in me apart from God that makes me want Him. We can only worship God because through Jesus He has called our dead hearts back to life and given us the Holy Spirit. This should not discourage us from pursuing God. We can ask God to give us hearts that are fully alive in Him. He gives us the grace for this. I love what A.W Tozer says about this:

“If your heart’s cold, then it is not yet a hard heart; God has not rejected it. Therefore, if there is a yearning within, God put that yearning there. He did not put it there to mock you; He put it there that you might rise to it. God puts the bait of yearning in your heart. He does not turn His back on you; He puts it there because He is there to meet you.”

I hope that this song gives language to hearts that desire to burn for Jesus. I pray that if your heart has grown tired, you would know that God has not deserted you. He longs to meet with us and help our hearts burn with first-love for Him.

Here is a little snippet of the original voice memo from the day that Chad and I wrote it.

You still have a few more hours to pre-save and here is the CCLI chart if you want to give it a try + an early PDF version.