I read a phrase today that I’ve read a million times before and always just kind of skimmed over it. “make music in your heart”. What does that really mean? The heart can’t really sing. Or can it?
Music is powerful. It has the ability to take mere words and give them an intensity that can penetrate a person’s soul. It speaks to us. It moves us. It is raw and real and honest. It picks up where lyrics alone are not enough to convey an emotion. It puts arms and legs to our words to help them reach and touch and dance in the deepest places of the soul.
When we learn a song “by heart”, we are able to sing it, almost without thinking, because it has become a part of who we are. Our heart has taken it in and memorized it. And singing it out loud becomes an effortless outflow of what is ingrained in us.
If I am making music in my heart, I am allowing my heart to be open and honest and expressive. I am opening it up to the power of real emotion. I am giving it the opportunity to dance. To love with abandon. To bring “music” to the lives of others. And a heartfelt “melody” to the heart of God…
Ephesians 5:19 – …singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…
There’s a stirring in my soul
A beat within my heart
A rhythm deep inside I can’t deny
And joining in the pulse
A heartfelt melody
Is dancing in the corners of my mind
Is this what they call
The music of the heart?
When the soul feels a rhythm
Sings in harmony each part?
Is this that lovely place
Where heaven and earth collide?
Where angels join the chorus
And two realms are unified?
I caught a glimpse of heaven
Even though my eyes were closed
So vivid when my heart sang out
It’s heartfelt, simple prose
The rhythm isn’t perfect
The pitch might be off key
But Jesus calls it beautiful
My heartfelt melody.
