I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
  Every hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
  I come to Thee.

I Need Thee Every Hour
By: Annie S. Hawks, 1836-1911 (1872)

Listen to this beautiful piano version as you read, or watch the video then read.  Please make certain to enjoy the video log below.

In this final installment we look at the refrain that would be repeated throughout the hymn.  It reinforces the overarching theme of our need of God, and makes plain the supply, Jesus Christ.

Are You Awake?

Our lives are made up of many needs.  Need for shelter, companionship, food, safety, to name a few.  We strive to meet these basic needs and their provision leads us to a different level in the hierarchy of needs.  Abundance, status, privilege, comfort, they become “needs” as the lower ones are met.  These are all very genuine needs, but there is ultimately and even greater need which each of these point to heart and mind of everyone willing to be honest enough to admit it.

We need God.

God provides the context for understanding all that is right and wrong in the world.  God gives us hope in the midst of difficulty and strength when ours is gone.  God rises above all these lessor needs and provides for us in His presence a rest that informs how we live today, and a perspective that there is coming a better tomorrow.

But we must be awake to receive it.

But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Luke 21:36 ESV

In this passage Jesus is particularly instructing us to watch for His return, but there is a larger application.  In order to be ready for that Day, we must be careful how we live each day.  It is easy to become complacent, slowly being lulled to sleep by the passing of time.

We must stay awake.

Only then will be have the strength to endure whatever comes, and be able to stand on that Day.

Are you awake?  Are you watchful every day of how you are living? Pray God keeps your eyes open and strengthens you to live for Him, with a constant awareness of your need of Him. Ask Him to reveal if there are even areas of your life where you are not watchful.  Confess them and ask Him to help you stay awake.

The Hour

This age as we wait on the return of Christ is made up of years.  Those years are made up of days.  And those days, hours.

If we live every second ready for His return, then we will be ready every minute.  If we are ready every minute, we will be ready every hour.  Even though we do not know the hour, we will be ready.

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  Matthew 24:44 ESV

So we are called to live in readiness and expectancy, but even still the hour of His return will be a surprise even to those watching for it.

The only way we can even approach this lofty ideal of living expectantly is to hourly confess how much we need Him.  That confession becomes the flame of a holy passion that consumes the dross of our selfish, ordinary lives and calls us to something far more beautiful, far more glorious.  It burns away the chaff and leaves the fully formed seed of righteousness.

Will you ignite that flame?  Will you welcome the Spirit to turn up the heat in your daily living until it becomes a spark to the kindling of your soul?  That is what being resonant means.  Reflecting on the reality of God routinely until it becomes your new normal.  

Jesus, I need You every hour.  Show me how to live out my need of you by praying often.  Keep me from falling asleep spiritually.  May I always be invoking Your power, Most High God.   In Jesus name.  Amen.

Fiery Tuning!

Keep coming back and we will work help you remove the things that may hinder your longing for His return by cultivating an awareness of God’s presence.   We will help you tune your heart to live out your worship by providing resources like this to help you acknowledge the greatness of God as you become more Resonant, 7 days a week.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content always available to Subscribers, often to Free Members, and sometimes everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the complete Subscribers content, click here.

Everyone members enjoy this video, and the transcript below.

Video 11.6 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
  Every hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
  I come to Thee.

I love it when writers repeat themselves, especially in song texts.  It must be important when they do. Add in the emphatic “Oh” and it leaves no doubt.  He needs God. I need God. Tell Him again, oh, tell Him again.

As if the first several times were not enough, here it is again.  I am certain this repetition is not vain, but purposeful. We know we need God, but we are prone toward self-sufficiency.  We repeat our need of God so we can not forget. Tell Him one last time.

And just what blessing are we longing for as we come to the Savior?  Nothing more than Him alone. We have rehearsed that in every line of every stanza and we declare it here together.   The blessing we long for is the presence of our Savior in every hour. Ask for it.

And we can be confident He will bless us with Himself.  Why? Because we have humbly declared our need and asked for Him alone.  Also because He promised. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”  James 4:8 Come to Him right now

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Asleep – https://pixabay.com/photos/man-young-male-adult-sleeping-909049/
Hour – https://pixabay.com/photos/clock-time-watch-hours-minutes-1461689/
Flame – https://pixabay.com/images/search/flame/

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
Oh, make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

I Need Thee Every Hour
By: Annie S. Hawks, 1836-1911 (1872)

Listen to this beautiful piano version as you read, or watch the video then read.  Please make certain to enjoy the video log below.

In this stanza, we focus in on the person of Jesus.  He is the blessed Son, in whom the Father was pleased.  The One whose birth was heralded by angels and announced by Gabriel himself.  The Savior who offered Himself to make us His own. Let’s tune our hearts.

Watch With Me

Jesus was nearing the end of His mission.  The hour was at hand.  He could feel the weight of the Father’s will.  He could see the cup He would have to drink.  He was in agony.  He drew His closest three away with Him and asked them to pray.  How discouraging when He returned and found them asleep.

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”  Matthew 26:40 ESV 

Jesus knew how much he needed the Father in those moments.  He modeled that for His disciples and invited them to enter in to that experience with Him, but all they could do was sleep.  Ever happen to you?

You knew these was something you needed to see God do.  You knew you needed to pray.  You started but found yourself driving off, barely able to keep your eyes open.  

Even when we know we need God, sometimes it is difficult to stay vigilant.  To remain alert.  It is true in many seasons.  It is true every hour.  You may not have actually fallen asleep, but you have certainly lost your vitality.

What area of your life is God using to reveal your need of Him in this season?  It will not take long to figure that out.  It is probably the thing you think about when you are thinking about nothing else.  Take a few moments now to tell Him you need Him in that area, and then ask Him to help you persevere in prayer in this hour, and the ones that follow.  Know with each prayer Jesus is persevering with you.

God Most High

So from the end of His life and ministry we swing the pendulum to His conception.  We do so to realize that we are asking for the help of One who though He is at His very nature different from us, He became one of us so that He could become intimately familiar with our need.  How kind of the Father to send Jesus to breath our air and walk our sod – the perfect Son of God.

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.  Luke 1:35 ESV

Though we could have used any number of Scriptures to consider why Jesus is the “most Holy One” we came here because of several key aspects.  It puts The Holy One we are crying out too in this stanza as the Son. It acknowledges the role of the Holy Spirit.  It points to the power of the Most High.

All these things must also be a part of our approach to God.  We must cry out to the Son.  We should acknowledge the role of the Holy Spirit.  Our prayers should invoke the power of the Most High.  Not so much in a formulaic way but in the essence.

Think about the last thing you cried out to God regarding.  When you last told Him how much you need Him.  Did you cry out to Jesus?  Did you acknowledge the role of the Holy Spirit?  Did you invoke the power of the Most High?  

Example

It should overwhelm you that you have access to Him.  It should humble you that you do not take advantage of it more often.  It should encourage you that you can change that, in this very hour.

Back to the Garden, and His passion.  Jesus sets the example for us.  Never was one’s need more great than when Jesus sweat drops of blood in anguish over the cup He was about to drink.  I cried out to the Father, and found in Him all He needed to endure the path before Him.

We can do the same.

What most brings to heart your greatest need for God today?  Lift it to Jesus.  Acknowledge the role of the Holy Spirit to help you.  Ask for the power of the Most High.  Then do it again, every time you think of it.

Jesus, I need You every hour.  Show me how to live out my need of you by praying often.  Keep me from falling asleep spiritually.  May I always be invoking Your power, Most High God.   In Jesus name.  Amen.

Sequential Tuning!

Keep coming back and we will work help you remove the things that may hinder your longing for His return by cultivating an awareness of God’s presence.   We will help you tune your heart to live out your worship by providing resources like this to help you acknowledge the greatness of God as you become more Resonant, 7 days a week.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content always available to Subscribers, often to Free Members, and sometimes everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the complete Subscribers content, click here.

Subscribers and free members enjoy this video, and along with everyone else the transcript below.

Video 11.5 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
Oh, make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

Rather than growing weary of telling Jesus how much you need Him, I hope you are instead  actually gaining momentum. When this posture begins the be your default setting, you can find the wholeness your soul craves.  Tell Him you need Him.

We need the Holy One because our lives are in pieces.  When confronted with the integrated wholeness of God, His Holiness, Isaiah said, “I am undone”.  God is the One who can put our broken pieces back together. Ask Him to make you whole, so you can be holy.

That path toward holiness requires the confession of our need of God demonstrated in a life of surrender.  Do you want to be whole? Offer your life to God, completely, entirely, holding nothing back. If you want to find your life, you must lose it in Him.  Do it now.

Jesus is our example of surrender, the blessed Son, who pleased His Father.  He laid down His life and is now exalted in heaven. Determine today to follow in His footsteps, staying one step behind Him, as you live a life that declares your constant need of Him.

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Gethsemane – https://pixabay.com/photos/passion-christ-jesus-christianity-3807314/
Annunciation – https://pixabay.com/photos/stained-glass-colorful-dove-angel-4053237/
Transfiguration – https://pixabay.com/photos/church-window-church-window-jesus-1704825/

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I Need Thee Every Hour
By: Annie S. Hawks, 1836-1911 (1872)

Listen to this beautiful piano version as you read, or watch the video then read.  Please make certain to enjoy the video log below.

So here we are again, declaring our need of God.  There is a beautiful flow through this stanza. Know God’s will, understand His promises, then see them fulfilled.  We must make certain we do not get these things out of order because that can influence our ability to see them clearly in our lives.  Let’s tune our hearts.

Sequence

It is unusual that one verse of Scripture so clearly is captured in the stanza of a hymn.  There are countless illusions to different Scriptures in every stanza of most hymns, but this stanza ends up being nearly a paraphrase of one verse in particular.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. Hebrews 10:36 ESV

Do you see it?

1. We need God
2. We do His will
3. His promises are given
4. His promises are fulfilled

What an incredible sequence of events!  But let’s be careful.  Though this is essentially a promise of God, there is no guarantee on the timeline, and certainly no assurance given that we get to dictate which promises, only that we will receive what is promised when we endure and do His will.

There is a sense in which it is like dominoes.  One leads to the next in an inextricable sequence.  The only issue is that God is in control of how the dominoes are set-up, when they begin to fall, what their design looks like, etc.  We are invited to enter into the sequence, but we are not in control.

The Scripture, and the sequence it outlines, is true.  Can you think of a time when you experienced this truth?  You discovered God’s will.  You endured to see His will done in your life.  You positioned yourself to receive what was promised.

Think of the life of Christ.  It is quite plainly the greatest expression of this sequence.  He knew the Father’s will was to go to the cross.  He endured that to the point of death.  The Father had already declared He was pleased with Jesus.  He fulfilled that by seeing that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

So what about you?  Jesus knew what God’s will was for Him.  Maybe there is a situation where you lack clarity or confidence.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you know God’s will in that particular circumstance.  Then just listen.

Teach Me

So in order for us to endure the will of God, that is to live through it for His glory, first we must know it.

I remember as a child being fascinated by dominoes.  If YouTube had existed back then I am sure I would have watched videos of extensive set-ups.  I received a set complete with templates to help set up complex sequences.  I remember more failures than successes as at times I accidentally knocked over parts of my elaborate design.

I also remember my dad helping me.  I recall how he would very carefully wold lift the templates with a precision I simply seemed to lack.  We built some wonderful layouts taking what seemed like forever.  When we would finish and look at each other with pride and joy.  The thrill of my dad smiling at me as he could see me asking with my eyes more than words if I could start the sequence is still a vivid recollection.

Oh, to gently tap that first domino and watch them all begin to fall.  The delight was only eclipsed by the reality of how long another would take to set up.  But it was so worth it.

My dad carefully and painstakingly taught me how to set those dominoes up.  It reminds me how our Father wants to help up endure a similar process as we learn His will.  He wants to teach us, but we need to ask, because asking demonstrates our desire to learn.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.  Psalm 25:4-5 ESV

I know the waiting is not easy, and we are so tempted to just start doing, but it is often pointless until we know what to do.  You may assume the endurance needed from the earlier has to do with this waiting, but it actually has to do with the endurance required to do the will of God once it is revealed to you.

Is there something you are waiting on God to show you?  Ask Him again to lead you and teach you.

Interruption

Maybe the issue in your sequence is instead that you know the will of God but are not doing it.  If you follow the progression of our sequence, failing to do the will of God that has been revealed to you effectively stops the sequence.  God is gracious and sometimes ushers the fulfillment of promises into our lives in spite of our failure to do His will, but the Scripture makes clear it is His desire to fulfill His promises, even His promise to do so, when we do His will.

Before you think this is punitive allow me to ask you a question.  Are you glad when God keeps His promises?  What if He did not keep up His end of the bargain, if He was fickle.  Would that not be disappointing?  Imagine how disappointed God is when we fail to do the will He has revealed to us.  Keep in mind though that much of that flows from His knowing what is best for us and that our failing to do His will actually robs us of His greatest promises.

It may simply be a matter of time.  You must simply wait to see the promise fulfilled.  That can be hard waiting too and we can begin to doubt if we have done His will His way.

Deep breath.  That is some profound processing.

So one last question.  Is there anything you are aware of that you have done that may have interrupted the sequence God has put in motion for you?  Maybe you are not aware, but need to ask just in case.  Maybe you simply need to be patient.  That requires some endurance as well.  Ask the Spirit to teach you what you need to know.

Jesus, I need You every hour.  Teach me Your will, then grant me the endurance I need to do it.  Forgive me for all the times I fail to do things Your way and walk down my own paths.  Draw me back into the sequence of blessing You with my obedience.   In Jesus name.  Amen.

Sequential Tuning!

Keep coming back and we will work help you remove the things that may hinder your longing for His return by cultivating an awareness of God’s presence.   We will help you tune your heart to live out your worship by providing resources like this to help you acknowledge the greatness of God as you become more Resonant, 7 days a week.

Like what you finding here?  Fill out the form to the right to get an email with each fresh post and updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Please comment below and share if you have found this helpful in your journey of being more resonant.

Below is content always available to Subscribers, often to Free Members, and sometimes everyone.  Want to learn more about accessing all the additional material in the Subscriber Content Library, click here, or the Free Member Content Library with some examples of the complete Subscribers content, click here.

Everyone enjoy this video and the transcript below.

Video 11.4 Transcript

Welcome to Tuesday Tunings at Resonant 7, where we reflect on the reality of God and resolve to let it resound in our lives, repeatedly. Let’s tune our hearts.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

And here we are again, confessing our need for God. Four weeks in and I have prayed for you that you are starting to develop a rhythm of telling God how much you need Him hour by hour.  Let’s start this time by telling Him again, “Lord, I need You.” 

The Holy Spirit is our teacher, so when we ask to be taught, we are asking for His influence in particular.  There are two aspects here that I see. The first is the general will of God, His ways, and the second specific direction in particular circumstances.  Ask Him for both, general and specific.

As we come to know and live His will, we are perfectly positioned to see the richness of His promises unfolding in our daily lives.  Do you know His promises? He has offered us so many in His word. Tell Him right now you want to know them all.

Are there promises you are already hoping in today?  Remind God that you long to see them fulfilled in your life, and commit to adjusting your living to His will, so you may find yourself in a “blessable” state, one where God’s promises may truly be fulfilled daily.  

Take a few moments to talk to Jesus about what has surfaced in your heart, or just listen to what He is saying to you, then we will sing once more.

Sing

Take the awareness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes into the next ones and beyond.  Until next time, be Resonant.

Image Attributions
Sequence – https://pixabay.com/photos/dominoes-domino-colorful-patterns-4020618/
Teach Me – https://pixabay.com/photos/dominoes-colorful-patterns-4020617/
Interruption – https://pixabay.com/photos/dominoes-domino-barricade-hand-1902622/

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.