Worship Wednesday: Tune My Heart

Chris Akers   -  

I sat down to praise this morning and was appropriately struck by frustration when I discovered my guitar had drifted out of tune. The constant bane of the stringed instrumentalist, you are never afforded the luxury of simply sitting down and playing. You must patiently, carefully tune your instrument before any real enjoyment can occur. This does not align well with my culturally conditioned proclivity toward instant gratification. I do not want to spend 5 to 10 minutes tuning. Time is precious and, by the time I have achieved satisfying intonation, my window for “worship” wanes.

Yet the Lord speaks His intention in the menial. Tuning our instrument is a God-designed metaphor for prayer. The hymnist said it best: “Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” The problem is these words are set to a joyful, lilting melody as if it were easy.

The reality of heart tuning involves surrender, patience, and often, frustration. We come to the Lord with a heart full of dissonance. We harbor anxiety, anger, resentment, impatience, sadness, and sin. Then we bow our will and yield to the still, slow process of prayer. Methodically He speaks, whispering the wonders of His attributes, revealing our pitch against His perfection. At times He must even make it worse. Like bending further flat or sharp, He must magnify our imperfections before we see our need. Finally, we emerge with a heart ready to worship, made so only by the master.

Today, may we invite His intervention, His purifying, His sanctifying work in our lives.

Lord, grant us willing hearts to receive Your correction. Your ways are not our ways. You are the master musician and though we balk, we are blessed to be tuned by Your hand.

Further Reflection

Listen to this song and spend time in prayerful reflection with God