Prayer for a heart like Your Heart

This prayer was written to accompany the song "Give me a Heart" by Greg and Pamela Fadness (Maranatha! Music). The song's chorus:
Give me a heart like Your heart, beating for the lost,
Give me a love like your love, no matter what the cost.
Give me a road to travel, a race that I can run,
Give me a heart like your heart, to stand until you come, until you come.

I wrote the prayer not to be spoken out loud, but to be read silently by the congregation as the words gently appear, a phrase at a time, on the screens. It takes about 90 seconds, during which the piano plays softly underneath. When the reading is completed, the chorus of the song is gently reprised.


God, all too often my heart is like stone.
Uncaring.
Cold.
Hard.
Unresponsive to Your voice.

I see the needs of others
for affirmation,
for encouragement,
for hope,
for prayer.
I even desire to respond as You would.

But all too often I become absorbed with my own wants
for attention,
for importance,
for comfort,
for satisfaction.

I hear Your word
through Scripture,
through Your Holy Spirit's voice,
and I long to awaken with joy
to follow after You.

But all too often I heed other voices:
the voice of the tempter,
the voice of the world,
the voice of my own selfish will.

I need a heart like Your heart.

Come to me now, Lord Jesus,
with Your heart of tenderness and compassion,
Your heart that longs to heal me,
to forgive me,
to restore me.

Give me a heart like Your heart.


© Rick Lindholtz, 2003