Welcome to my first Music Ministry blog! I’m so excited to be a part of the Turning Point Music ministry. Our goal is to help you in the Turning Point learn how to worship more fully and encourage you in your relationship with God. We are also teaching ourselves how to do this so it’s great to be on the same road together.

I thought it would be great to write each week about a song that we sing during our time of worship on Sunday, explore the lyrics and scripture behind that song as well as provide a link for that song so you can easily find it on itunes or wherever you shop for music. Another link I’ll be providing is one for all the new songs we are planning on doing this year so you can download those songs and listen to them ahead of time. I believe this will help all of us tremendously in being engaged and invested in what we sing on a given Sunday. One of my personal goals with this is to get more of and more people listening to the music we sing on Sunday, to listen and sing to it Monday through Saturday as well. 

This week I want to talk about a new song called “Arms open wide”.

Check out the lyrics…

Take my life I lay it down

At the cross where I am found

All I have I give to you O God

Take my hands and make them clean

Keep my heart in purity

That I may walk in all you have for me

Here I stand Arms open wide

I am yours and you are mine

Take my moments and my days

Let each breath that I take

Be ever only for you Oh God

My whole life is yours, I give it all

Surrendered to your name

And forever I will pray

Have your way, have your way

I love songs like this. It’s like a prayer, a prayer to God of surrender. How many of us need that? I know I do… everyday.

Songs like this help me think about our heroes from the scriptures that prayed like this in the most challenging situations. David in the psalms as he’s being hunted down by Saul, Jonah as he’s in the belly of a fish for three days, or Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as he’s preparing for his crucifixion.

I love the bridge of this Song:

“My whole life is yours, I give it all surrendered to your name, and forever I will pray, have your way, have your way.”

More and more I find myself praying a prayer like this… telling God I’m available to him, that I give it all, my life to him to use. I believe it’s important for us to verbalize these kinds of things to our God as often we just think them but then don’t go any further.  It’s kinds like thinking “I do” vs. actually saying “I do”. It makes a difference for us.

Consider Jesus’ prayer in the garden form Matthew 26:

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus’ heart was burning in this moment with what he was about to face. His thoughts were probably racing a mile a minute… I believe it was so important for him to verbalize this with God in prayer and offer his surrender.  One of the amazing things about this prayer is you see his resolve afterwards and his focus on the mission before him.

I believe we can tap into this through the same process… verbalizing our surrender, offering ourselves to God through prayer, and when we sing about these kinds of things we can take it to another level. There’s just something very powerful about a group of people singing about giving their life for God’s purposes.  I believe that unity gives us strength individually and speaks volumes to those watching us on a given Sunday.

I pray that you enjoy this song as much as I have!

Arms open wide, Hillsong – tear down the walls