Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart, ELW 800
1 Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;
stoop to my weakness, strength to me impart,
and make me love you as I ought to love.
2 I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no op’ning skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.
3 Have you not bid me love you, God and King:
all, all your own, soul, heart and strength and mind?
I see your cross; there teach my heart to cling.
Oh, let me seek you and, oh, let me find!
4 Teach me to love you as your angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame:
the baptism of the heav’n-descended dove,
my heart an altar, and your love the flame.
Devotion
“Spirit of God, descend upon my heart; wean it from earth, through all its pulses move.” Do you know that the average human heart will beat somewhere between two and three billion times in a person’s lifetime? And with each heartbeat, with each pulse of that heart muscle, God is there. Imagine that. We like to talk about something happening in a heartbeat, but the hymn writer reminds us of what is happening in billions of heartbeats. God is there, working in us, working through us, enlivening us, challenging us, moving us forward…one beat at a time.
Listen to your heartbeat. Feel the blood pulsing through your veins with each beat. Use that steady rhythm to remind yourself that God is with you and working in you.
Prayer
Spirit of God, move in my life with each and every beat of my heart. Strengthen me, lift me up, and lead me. Be the pulse of my life. Amen.