Song of the Week - Empty Me

This song seems to be one that we keep coming back to over and over, especually for altar calls. Maybe because our pastors have been talking about the fire of God a lot lately, or because we have a constant call at Gospel Light to rid ourselves of the things that are not of God.

This song was originally written my John Mark Comer and Gene Way, but came to to prominence in 2004 when it was recorded by Jeremy Camp on his sophomore album, Carried Me: A Worship Project. I contrast to Camps normally edgy music, "Empty Me" is quieter, simpler. A very simple melody and chord progression make it easy to sing and play. The message is simple:

Holy Fire, burn away my desire for anything
that is not of You and is of me
I want more of You and less of me.

There it is; the whole verse. The chorus is equally simple:

Empty me, empty me
Fill, won't you fill me
With You, with You

That's the whole song. But when sung with an earnestness of heart, it becomes a powerful cry to God. God, please take anything from me that does not belong to you! And like the man who cleans his house of demons and leaves it empty, we cannot stay that way. So God, pour your Spirit into me! Fill me, O God!

I really love the pause between the verse and the chorus, because to me it symbolizes the change that comes over us when we remove worldy things from our hearts, and allow God to move in. The song is so simple I can play it with my eyes closed, and really worship as I do. I've seen so many people broken at these simple lyrics.

Here is a link to a video of Jeremy performing the song.