Hymn-ful Sundays! "O Worship the King"

This week's hymn is by Robert Grant, and a reworking of lyrics by psalter William Kethe. Grant was a turn of the 19th century lawyer and politician, who was born in India, but lived much of his life in England.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

This week's hymn is another modern one, written by British song- and hymn-writer Stuart Townsend in 1995. Townsend also co-wrote "In Christ Alone", which I featured earlier this year. He is the son of a Church of England minister, and the youngest of four children. He began writing music at the age of 22.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "Great is Thy Faithfulness"

This week's hymn is by Thomas Chisholm, a Methodist minister and hymnwriter at the turn of the 20th century, who wrote it as a testimony of God's faithfulness over his lifetime.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "A Charge to Keep I Have"

This week's hymn is another by Charles Wesley, one of the prominent hymnwriters of the Methodist tradition.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "To God be the Glory"

We're back with Fanny Crosby again! This American hymnwriter wrote many many popular hymns that we still are singing almost 150 years later! This week's is a hymn of praise to God for all that He has done.

Seven Ways to Pray: 7. Diligence

If you want to catch up, read the introductory post for Seven Ways to Pray for Your Heart, which contains links to all the other posts in the series. Also, you can find Jon Bloom's original post here.

The final word that we focused on was diligence. Diligence was a great way to end our series as it speaks of perseverance, consistency and an intentional attitude. It was the easiest thing to pray for, perhaps because it is the hardest thing to do. When we focused on delight seven weeks ago, it helped to set the tone for delighting in God in all things. This final week, diligence is the perfect summation. As my prayers focused on diligence this week, I found myself praying for diligence in delighting in the Lord, diligently desiring God, diligently realizing my dependence on Him, diligently seeking the Holy Spirit for discernment, being diligently desperate, and perhaps most of all, being diligently disciplined.

For Your Glory

One of the most difficult things to grasp in this walk with God is learning that God should be the center of our lives, and that we should, in fact, put ourselves at the very bottom. After all, practically from birth, we are taught that we are the most important people in our own lives. Of course no one ever says these exact words, but we're taught to "look out for ourselves" and to "chase our dreams" and to "pursue our heart's desires." Not that there is anything inherently wrong in doing any of these things, but it does make the concept of surrendering to the will of God a difficult one, simply because the first thing we learn is to live according to our own will.