Break My Heart by Teresa Semore

Break my heart dear Lord, tear the barriers down,

Show me in convicting tears the glories of Your crown.

My heart is hard, my soul so weak, the ways of evil cut so deep.

I need you Lord to come inside and gently break my heart.

My sin is great but I can see the glories set for me.

Show me Father where to start and gently break my heart.

This particular hymn has been weighing heavy on my heart lately. Its meaning is much deeper than is generally placed while it is sung. Yes, it has a beautiful melody but the words are what strike a chord deep within my own heart.

The author of the poem turned hymn, Clint Rhodes, was a high school junior in 1997 when he was preparing to present a lesson to his church youth group. His topic was having a soft and contrite heart as opposed to a hard heart when dealing with sin, and how God sometimes used tough love to help discover sin.

Let us dissect the song line by line. Break my heart dear Lord, tear the barriers down. What barriers are protecting your heart from admitting sin and allowing the Lord to break through?

Show me in convicting tears the glories of your crown. Have you realized your sin is so great that when allowing the Lord to break your heart your tears flow freely?

The refrain My heart is hard, my soul so weak, the ways of evil cut so deep. How hard does your heart have to be and how weak must your soul be? Are the ways of evil continually cutting deep?

I need you Lord to come inside and gently break my heart. Have you allowed the Lord to break your heart so He can enter to make you whole?

My sin is great but I can see the glories set for me. Have you realized that no matter how great the sin, the blood of Jesus cleanses and the glories of heaven are within reach.

Show me Father where to start and gently break my heart. Have you laid all at the Father’s feet and asked him to guide you back to his fold through the breaking of your heart?

One of the greatest biblical examples of requesting the Lord to break his heart is that of King David. Following his sin with another man’s wife and the subsequent death of the husband, King David wrote a psalm detailing his grief and penitent heart. Psalm 51:1-4 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” He continues in verse 10, “Create in my a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Then again in verse 17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise.”