Sung Prayers

At church this week I was struck by one of the worship songs we sang. I haven't been back to the church I grew up in for  a few months. It was planted on the day I was born ( I was born on a Sunday over twenty years ago) they sing different things than I am used to now. Not because they are stuck in the past  but because the worship leaders like to mix the songs we have always sung in with some new ones but they as  a tiny church in a community centre tend to favour the more acoustic over the power worship music we have these days. Also the congregation is on average a little older so they are less likely to follow the new stuff but not so old that they are in hymns ancient and modern. The service is different and it often ends saying to grace to each other making eye contact with everyone during it.

As a child I always sang loudly but I would always sing with all my heart even as a teenager. I had a few favourites and I would sing it not really minding to the words but as I sung this on Sunday I was reminded that if your heart is in what comes out of your mouth as you sing to him God will take it as a prayer. I was struck how much God had answered the prayer of a child who just wanted to sing with all her heart the dancing song. Now of course it is pretty much my prayer - as you can tell by my previous blog post! ( I am trying to post one ahead so that I can be on top of this.... so I wrote that one Friday and Saturday...)

Anyway this is the song:

Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart
Teach me to move in the power of your Spirit
Teach me to walk in the light of your presence
Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart

Teach me to love with your heart of compassion
Teach me to trust in the word of your promise
Teach me to hope in the day of your coming
Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart 

You wrote the rhythm of life
Created heaven and earth
In You is joy without measure
So, like a child in your sight
I dance to see your delight
For I was made for your pleasure
Pleasure

Let all my movements express

A heart that loves to say 'yes'
A will that leaps to obey you

Let all my energy blaze
To see the joy in your face
Let my whole being praise you
Praise you 
Graham Kendrick 
Copyright © 1993 Make Way Music, 
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk