I remember some years ago hearing Jackie Pullinger speak at an event at which I was leading. I had a song in mind to close the meeting (I won’t mention which one it was – not one of mine!), when to my astonishment in her talk she referred to the song – and how much she hated it! (Needless to say, I decided not to use it…)
Her problem with it was that it encouraged us to meet with God and be filled up and energized in order to go out and reach the lost. But in her experience, you meet with Him by going out – He’s there in the streets, already alongside those who need to be reached. So, if you want more of God, to get to know Him better, get out and meet Him there!
That’s not to say that times of ministry and communal prayer aren’t important; we need the encouragement and envisioning that only comes from the Body of Christ being together. But the place where our faith is most stretched, and our sense of God’s presence and power is most evident, is in the act of living out the gospel in daily life – if we are ready to look for Him there.
And it’s often in those more ‘uncomfortable’ places that we really see His closeness to us and His working through us. God is waiting for us to meet Him in the streets, to be His hands and feet alongside the homeless and hungry and poor, the “least of these” as Jesus calls them. And until we do that we will never be truly enjoying the riches of knowing Christ.
This song is a challenge and an encouragement to take our faith into the heart of our local communities, as Jesus calls us to do and Himself did again and again when he walked this earth. He is already in our streets, and wants to meet us there in wonderful and life-changing ways as we live faithfully alongside and amongst the poor and the marginalised.
Check out the video below. For the sheet music and lyrics, click here.
