It Takes Two to Tango

"Order my steps in Your Word dear Lord
Lead me, guide me every day
Send Your anointing, Father I pray;
Order my steps in Your Word
Please order my steps in Your Word." 

If I had piggy banked a nickel every time I hummed, sang along, or prayed just the first verse of this song, I'd be rolling in dough today.  While I don't remember when I first heard the "Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir render it, its request took up residence in heart and mind.  It became my "Go-To" song, my plaintive plea. Eventually, one Sunday the choir prefaced Pastor's sermon with the song; in turn, he preached an invigorating message.  He presented a "Let go and let God" encompassing past and present-day reasoning that convinced and convicted me! 

More often than not, though, my "Order my steps" requests resulted in prayers answered! Petitions not producing the desired response?  Quickly forgotten.  Truthfully, in fact, my prayers sprouted like dandruff on a dry scalp.  An inaugural member of God-As-Microwave-First-Response, I paid scant attention to numbers.  Sufficient "Qs" and "As" kept me satiated.  

My day of reckoning started innocently enough.  Why," a voice whispered, "have the lyrics seemed to have lost their oomph! from when you first start humming them?" Yes, Lord, I still ask You to order my steps and in essence, give You a laundry list of needs.  (Something like my Santa's list even now, eh?)  Let's see:  I ask You to "lead, guide, anoint, teach, bridle, edify and take charge."  Why then does it feel, sometimes, that things don't happen as quickly as they used to?

Mother's spirit  spoke from Heaven, "Be still and know that I am God."  

You can sail on a ship by yourself
Take a nap or a nip by yourself
You can get into debt on your own
There are lots of things that you can do alone,
But
"It takes two to Tango, two to Tango..."

Hmm. What? Oh! Oh my! I need to revisit the "Order my steps..." lyrics, all of them?"   Well, yes Sir, I see.  I understand fully.  Thank You!

After He and I communed, He "opened the ears of my understanding," as the Deacons in my home Church used to pray.  God wants us to "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).   He further explains how His unconditional love works, not only in Matthew 7:8 and Mark 11:26, (but throughout the Testaments).   We're not to "just sit and wait like a bump on a log." Mother would say.  "Love is an action verb!"

My "part" requires me to act! Matthew 7:8 explains, "For everyone who asks receives, and the one seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."  Mark elaborates further in verse 11:26, which assures,  "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  Clearly, God calls us into a relationship, not some unrequited fling.

Now, I listen closely, not only to "Order my steps in Your Word dear Lord," but to every anthem, hymn,  or gospel I hear.  My conscious desire to act on God's words as  in,

"Bridle my tongue let my words edify
Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight
Take charge of my thoughts both day and night;
Order m steps in Your Word
Please order my steps in Your Word."