Beautiful Jesus, how may I bless Your heart?
Knees to the earth I bow down to everything You are.
Knees to the earth
Beautiful Jesus
How may I bless Your heart?
Knees to the earth I bow down to everything You are.
Beautiful Jesus
You are my only worth.
So let me embrace You always as I walk this earth.
- Watermark
Yesterday I posted the words to a song by Chris Tomlin (who by the way has a blog, too)
The Song is titled "We fall down".
It is a song I know I've sung 1,000 times or more, so why now is that song stuck in my head? Why now does the meaning of the song affect me so strongly? I typically sing this song and think of how we should cast all our cares and anxieties on Him because He cares for us (Peter 5:7), but this time the words are really standing out to me and it means a bit more than that. To me this song just reflects the utter humility I desire to express.
Let's look at the first verse - We fall down (short and to the point)
Emphasis on the word fall - because when a person falls it is "usually" not purposefully. (It is usually an uncoordinated act on my part causing me to surrender to gravity. ) : o)
To be more specific - one definition of the word means: "To lose an upright or erect position suddenly"
The word fall in this context illustrates a different way of coming before the throne. Falling is so different from bowing or kneeling which can imply some power in the action that is our own, however FALLING down before God expresses a greater sense of the surrender.
Second verse - We lay our crowns
Here's where the meaning has changed for me - this isn't just simply casting our "cares" on him, this is casting our "crowns". A crown is something precious to us that we have put on. A crown is a symbol of sovereignty, which is defined as complete independence and self-government, autonomy, freedom from external control. These may be little things, or even big things that we fail to put under the umbrella of God's grace and sovereignty and instead take credit or pride in accomplishing or possessing.
Ahh there's the word - Pride - I knew that would come up somewhere. Pride - working in direct opposition to humility.
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth."
I realize now why God is using this song to minister to me in a new way. I see that when I do things throughout my day without acknowledging God or take credit for things going well or even not so well - I am presuming autonomy and self governance and that is the essence of pride.
It is so easy to slip into that prideful frame of mind and put on that crown when my house is clean, the kids are behaving and dinner is done on time when Randy comes home. I may wear a crown when my kids are on "their best behavior" at Grandma's house or even when one my children recognizes their sin using a scripture "I" taught them. How arrogant is my pride -
".........As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." C. S. Lewis
I pray that through God's grace to lay not only my cares, but my crowns at His feet.
