Reflections from the desk of Michael Littlefield, OMF (U.S.) President and National Director.
“Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Ephesians 5:18-19, ESV
Jesus commanded us to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Matt. 9:38, ESV) On Monday mornings the U.S. team gathers to do just that. In prayer and worship, we raise our voices to the Lord of the harvest on behalf of East Asia’s people.
Many of you know that OMF is a praying fellowship. You may not know that we are also a singing fellowship, a team that worships together. At nearly every event we host, worship is on the agenda. We have musicians in our staff that lead worship at churches and often join together to lead worship here at the office. What a rich blessing it is to experience God’s heart in song, leading us into deeper, greater moments of prayer together.
As I was preparing to lead a prayer and worship time recently, I was drawn to the treasured hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The first line reads, “Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” As I reflected on the lyrics, I noticed the word here is not praise as I expected, but grace. I don’t know what Robert Robinson was facing when he wrote these words in 1757. He was just 22 at the time; yet he knew that his heart needed to be tuned to God’s grace. It is from those “streams of mercy, never ceasing” that flow “songs of loudest praise.”
Following that prayer time, I headed to a local Christian Coffee shop. It is a creative place for me to listen and write. On this visit, I sat in a different chair, praying about this letter. Slowly my heart focused on what my eyes were seeing—a very large sign on the wall that read “Tune My Heart.” God was reminding me. And I hope reminding you.
God is working in ways we cannot understand. In the midst of encouragement there is the pain of colleagues going through cancer, of tough situations, of seemingly unanswered prayer. It is so easy to get out of tune. Like my guitar, it needs to be tuned daily.
Our hearts are tuned as we remember that God’s grace is limitless, his love is profound, his power is unstoppable, his promises are true, his timing is perfect, the hope he gives is complete. He reminds in subtle ways sometimes; like a sign on the wall of a coffee shop.
All we need to do is see.
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