To Bless Your Heart

     I’m hostessing another teen girls’ all nighter at my house this Friday night. I’ve  been doing this about twice a year for the last 2-3 years.  Often I schedule them when Paul is on a mission trip, but he’s gone back to work again, so he’s not flying off to Africa or some other place for a while. (He’s retired twice now. Third time’s a charm, and he seems to be in the charming work stage right now.  That’s another topic for another time.)  I have a theme for each all nighter, so this time, I chose my theme based upon the lovely, little chorus, “To Bless Your Heart” which is about blessing God’s heart. Oh, how could we ever bless The Blesser?

     That’s a big question. The following is a handout I’ll use for a little devotional with the girls. We’ll gather around my piano and learn the song. Most of them like to sing. Then we’ll reflect upon the meaning of the song and take it back to the Scriptures. I’ve listed only one verse at the bottom of the page, but we’re going to look at several passages that speak of God’s heart and the human heart.

     Using a concordance, we can discover a ton of material about the human heart, so I’ll choose just a few passages, such as Ezekiel 36:26-27 (about God giving His people new hearts), Eph. 3:14-19 (about Christ dwelling within the heart), Prov. 23:15 (about the hearts of children and parents), and Mark 12: 29-31 (about loving God with heart, soul ….and loving neighbors). There are around 900 references to the heart in the Scriptures!  What about God’s heart? Genesis 8:21 tells us what God said in His heart and says what God knows about the human heart. Very interesting.

     Well, enough said. I invite you to read the following lyrics and to answer the questions. The questions help us think about what this little song is really saying.  Does the song say what you’d like to say to the Lord?

To Bless Your Heart

To bless Your heart, Lord God, is my desire,

To let You touch my life and set my heart afire;

To see Your hand of love in all that comes my way,

To learn to hear Your voice each moment of the day.

(Song by Wendy Corrick, Copyright 1985, Chalace Music)

  The Lyrics:

• What is “my desire”?

1. To  _________________________________________________
2. To  _________________________________________________
3. To  _________________________________________________
4. To  _________________________________________________

• • What is another word for “desire”?

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  •  What does it mean to “bless”?

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  • What is the heart? What kind of heart does God have?  What kind of heart do I have?

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  • Copy Psalm 19:14 and then think about what this verse means to you.

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• May God bless you, and may each of us bless the heart of the Lord. Selah.