Compared to some of the self loving, high flying prayer requests expressed in today’s praise and worship songs, the “wants” of this old spiritual are beautifully humble:

Lord I want to be a Christian inna my heart....

Lord I want to be more loving inna my heart....

Lord I want to be more holy inna my heart....

Lord I want to be like Jesus inna my heart....

Aren’t all these aspirations perfectly in accord with God’s desires expressed in the Bible? And isn’t this order pretty much how we might progress? One could do very well making each of these four verses a five minute prayer.

The musical style progresses in my arrangement, from classic spiritual, to blues, to western Americana. I ask for a little freshening of tempo at the start of each section, though you may well be justified in slowing again by the time you come to the end of the section.

Though staff lines be missing from your screen, they will print.