By Steve Salkeld
Have you ever written a letter to God?
You may think that’s an odd question – your response may be ‘what’s his address?’ ‘I don’t have to, I can pray’ ‘God knows everything I have to say anyway’
Valid replies, but an interesting concept anyway don’t you think?
I love this song, both the melody, the feeling and the sentiment. It’s a song of two halves, the first being the singer pouring out his heart to God, the second half being an envisages response from God.
Two things here, firstly, how often are we really honest with God? How often do we pour our heart out to Him, irrespective of the fact he already knows our feelings? We may know how our loved ones, our friends are feeling, but we’d hope that they are honest and share those feelings with us. That’s what makes relationships. So share with God, be honest with God, tell him of your thanks, the blessings both large and small which you’ve seen and gratefully received; tell him of your worries, your doubts, your concerns, your needs, your struggles; tell him of others, those near and dear to us, those perhaps we struggle with, those we are concerned about in a wider, broader context. Be honest, be real, be relationship.
Secondly, the reassurance from God. God does know our feelings, sends and sees the blessings, hears our struggles, feels our doubts. The beauty of the lyrics of this song is that God doesn’t give up on us, He is not scared of our imperfections, that to Him we are already enough, His love for us will never change or fade away – not just song lyrics, but biblically based.
Perhaps it’s time you wrote a letter to God your father, and listen out for his response!
Listen to Dear God by Cory and Anna Ashbury here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSuvUyIoNk
Dear God – Cory and Anna Asbury – lyrics
Dear God
I’ve been trying awful hard to make You proud of me
But it seems
The harder that I try, all the harder it becomes
And I feel like giving up
Most of the time
Dear God
I’ve been chasing their approval and it’s killin’ me
And I know
The more I try to prove
All the less I have to show
And I’m stuck inside my head
Most of the time
But if I pray a little harder
If I follow all the rules
I wonder, could I ever be enough?
‘Cause I try and try
Just to fall back down again
And I ask myself why
Do I try to chase the wind?
I should lean into the mystery
Maybe hope is found in a melody
So I wanna try again
Oh, I’m gonna try again
And dear child
I hope you know how much I love you and I’m proud of you
And please believe
The thoughts I have for you will never change or fade away
And when you felt like giving up
I never did
‘Cause I’m not scared of imperfections
Or the questions in your head
Just know that you have always been enough
‘Cause you tried and you tried
And I saw you wrestle with
Every how, every why
I was right there listening
So just fall into the mystery
And I’ll meet you here in the melody
Try, just to try again
Oh, child would you try again?
My child you can love again