thoughts from "All I Am" on Phil Wickham's Singalong 2‏

I was listening to this song today as I went about my business.

You can listen to it HERE.

There is a vanity often attached to one’s acknowledgement of their own depravity. It usually manifests itself in some permutation similar to one saying, “How could God use me? I am so broken. Who am I?”

The problem is that these are all true. Who are you to accomplish godly work? No one. You are broken.  How can you be used to fix anything? You can’t.

I had this state of mind for a long time. I denied God’s ability to use me for His glory because I believed I was beyond His ability to do so. This I framed as doubting myself, when in actuality I was doubting God. I also doubted the power of the Gospel to present me as blameless in Christ (as He is, not as I am). I misunderstood the Good News to be OK News that proclaimed God was no longer going to spank me, but was still rather disappointed in me and was going to reluctantly let me into His Kingdom. This is the NOT the Gospel or Good News. It is Nice News that God is not filing for divorce, but discouraging that I will be living in a house with a husband bound by vow and not by love.

I love the way Phil Wickham fleshes this out in these lyrics. It is not about us having anything in our hands. Our empty hands are actually the prerequisite for being used by God (as opposed to our disqualification as I had once suspected). 

Our stumbling is not that which provides evidence against our inclusion into His mercy, it is the proof that we need His mercy.

God has never used someone that did not need God in order to be useful.

Take these hands
I know they're empty
But with You they can
Be used for beauty
In Your perfect plan
All I am is Yours

Take these feet
I know they stumble
But You use the weak
You use the humble
So please use meAll I am is Yours

I give You all my life
I'm letting it go
A living sacrifice
No longer my own
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours

I lift my hands up
God I surrender
All that I am for Your glory, Your honor, Your fame