Hymn of Heaven

The next entry for my Blog is Hymn of Heaven, which was written Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham, Bill Johnson, and Chris Davenport.  It was first released June 25, 2021.  A link to Phil Wickham singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Hymn of Heaven

How I long to breathe the air of Heaven

Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets
To look upon the One who bled to save me
And walk with Him for all eternity

There will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And every prayer we prayed in desperation
The songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear
In the end, we’ll see that it was worth it
When He returns to wipe away our tears

Oh, there will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”
“Forever He shall reign”

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord

Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord

Many times, I have heard people say, that person is such a breath of fresh air; meaning the person brings light into a challenging situation.  The writer of this song starts by saying they long for the breath of fresh air that only heaven can bring.  No matter how good or bad things are for us today, heaven will far surpass all of our hopes and dreams.  It is a place where there is no pain or sorrow and everywhere we look is perfection.  We get to spend time with Jesus, who is the one who died for us so we could spend forever with him.  That day will come when we will bow down to him in reverence as well as thankfulness for what he did for us.  Some of the greatest things in heaven, other than time with our savior, will be that there will be no more death, no more sadness, no more suffering, no more tears of sadness, and we will be reunited with friends and family who had accepted Christ and passed on before us.  Every time we experience this joy, we will be thanking Jesus for dying for us and reuniting us with  our loved ones.

It is challenging to talk about anything after thinking about the above, it all will be so so wonderful.  The problem is that we let the challenges of our life take over our daily thoughts again and again.  It all seems to be an act of desperation.  Part of the problem is that we do no pray enough, which leads us to forget about God and his role in our lives.  We are told in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-17, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.  We need to thank God for everything he has done for us in our lives.  We should also pray for the needs of our families, our friends, our enemies, our country, and the entire world.  All of these are God’s creations, he put all of us here.   We sometimes give up hope after praying for so long, it is almost as if our desperate pleas are not being heard.  We maybe go to church and sing the songs of glory, and hear the strong message of God’s promises.  I love to listen to songs about Jesus and faith on the radio and I sing my heart out.  After I leave the church building and after I get out of my car, I seem to lose some of that joy I was just experiencing; I let life take away my joy.  As the song says, it will all be worth our pain, our suffering, and our frustration with life.  The day will come when Jesus, the one who died for us, will wipe away all of our tears and fill our hearts with joy as we begin life in our new home.  We are told this in the book of Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  This promise is for those who have accepted Jesus as their personal savior.

The day that Jesus comes in the clouds, the people who have accepted him will rise into heaven to join all others who accepted him and died before us.  We will be part of the resurrection of millions of others.  We will all of a sudden be side by side with some of the greatest people of faith who ever lived.   Many of these will be people we have read about in our bibles, others will be some of the great leaders of faith that came after the time of Jesus, and most will be people who are regular everyday people who accepted Christ as their personal savior.  We will be standing with people who might have lived since mankind was first created, all of the God’s faithful will be together for the first time.  This entire gathering of the saved, which will be larger than we could ever imagine, will start singing Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.  Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, finally gets to hear all of his family sing praises to him and the father.

Wow, I am not sure I can even imagine the billions of voices from people of all eras of time and representing the entire earth singing at one time.  The angels will be also be joining in as the music reaches a crescendo that we ever thought possible.  What better way to honor our savior, who is the definition of holiness.  Holy, holy is the Lord indeed.

Click to See Phil Wickham Perform Hymn of Heaven

I Give You My Heart / This is My Desire

The next entry for my Blog is I Give You My Heart / This is My Desire, written by Reuben Morgan and first released in 1995. A link to Hillsong performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog

I Give You My Heart

This is my desire
To honor You
Lord, with all my heart
I worship You
All I have within me
I give You praise
All that I adore
Is in You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
And every breath that I take
Every moment I’m awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

This is my desire
To honor You
Lord, with all my heart
I worship You
All I have within me
I give You praise
All that I adore
Is in You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I’m awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

And I will live
And I will live for You
And I will live
And I will live for You
Oh and I will live
And I will live
And I will live for You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul, I live for You alone
Every breath that I take, every moment I’m awake
Lord, have Your way in me

Have Your way
Have Your way, have Your way

Have you ever taken time to sort of stop your world and think about what you desire most in life? Probably most of our desires center around friends, relationships, families, jobs, and our future; which are all things that are always on our minds. Where does God fall into this list of desires? I don’t believe any of the above desires are wrong, but without the right relationship with God, I do not believe any of our desires will be fulfilled to the level they can be. Notice in the lyrics, the writer says this is my desire, to honor you Lord. To me this line states that honoring the Lord should be our greatest desire. This is confirmed in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

We are to desire God above all other people and things and we should worship him with all of our heart and praise him with all of our inner being. All of us have probably heard this before, but how many of us have ever done it? I do desire that right relationship with God, I do worship him, and I do praise him; but I am not sure that I have ever done this with all of me. I believe we all struggle with this as well, but I think the primary issue with us not giving our all, is that we are not willing to sacrifice parts of our lives and give them to God. The song points out that we must adore everything about God. For us to adore God, we must treasure who he is and what he wants for us as well as all he has to offer. In order for us to give him our all, we must first assess what is more important to us than the relationship with God that he desires. This requires a lot of soul searching and being completely honest with ourselves to fully understand what is truly keeping us from dedicating our lives fully to God. I realize this is a seemingly impossible task since there are so many things that we cling to and are unwilling to give them up to God so we can give ourselves fully to him.

As you do this soul searching, think about what it would mean to fully give your heart, your soul, and your life to the father of creation. Consider asking God what he wants you to do each and every day and following his direction. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to give up on your family, quit your job, or become a missionary in another country; it just means that you are trusting in God to lead you down the right path. It will help you to be a better spouse, a better parent, maybe a better employee, and will likely set your heart on fire in regards to telling others about the eternal life that Christ made available to each of us. It would take away a lot of the worry and angst that each of us faces every day. Trust in God and believe that he will be there for every breath your take and then will take you to your eternal home once you have taken your last breath. By putting ourselves completely in the hands of God, he can lead and guide us down the paths where he wanted us to be. Maybe we can’t find the right path on our own, but God can put us on that path and make sure we stay on it as much as possible; all we have to do is live for him as he lives through us. All of our earthly desires, plans, and wishes will fade away, but the promise of God will never fail. 1 John 2:17 tells us, “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” Since the things of earth fade away, what are you waiting on to focus on God and his eternal blessing? What is more important to you than following the path that God has prepared for you?

Click to Hear Hillsong Sing I Give You My Heart