Change My Heart Oh God - by Roby Duke - Song writer Eddie Espinosa

Song: Change My Heart Oh God
Artist: Roby Duke
Album Songs 4 Worship: Holy Ground
Licensed to UA-cam by
[Merlin] Absolute Label Services; ASCAP, Music Services, Inc. (Publishing), and 14 Music Rights Societies
Story behind the song: ‘Change My Heart, O God’ by Lindsay Terry:
I have interviewed songwriters in scores of unusual places.
I caught up with Eddie Espinosa, by way of his cell phone while he strolled the aisles of a Target store in the Los Angeles area, shopping for a Mothers Day present for his mother-in-law. You can imagine the background sounds on the tape of the interview. Eddie is currently an assistant principal at Canyon High School in Anaheim, California.
Now for the story behind a tremendous song as Eddie told it:
“The year was 1982. I had been a Christian since 1969, but I saw a lot of things in my life that needed to be discarded. I had slowly become very complacent. I acknowledged my complacency, and I prayed to the Lord, ‘The only way that I can follow you is for you to change my appetite, the things that draw me away. You must change my heart!’”
Eddie continued, “Shortly thereafter I was in my car on the way to my work, feeling a desire to draw near to God and with the wrestling still going on in my heart. Suddenly, a melody and some words began to flood through my mind. As I stopped at a stop sign I reached for something to write on. The first thing I found was a small piece of yellow paper, which, by the way, I still have, and began to write as rapidly as I could. It was like taking dictation. I wrote the words on the paper, and kept the melody in my mind.”
“Change my heart, O God!
Make it ever true.
Change my heart, O God!
May I be like you.
You are the potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.”
“Our church home was the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, California, and someone told the pastor that I had written a song that would be good for the congregation to sing. The pastor asked me to play it for him, and afterwards asked if I would share it with the congregation. From that point on, I began to get reports that my song was being taught in San Diego, Los Angeles and in many other places.”
Eddie has had many great experiences with “Change My Heart, O God,” one of which was to lead thousands of men as they sang it at a Promise Keepers meeting in Texas Stadium in Dallas.
The essence of Eddie’s song is a prayer asking God to change us, making our hearts “true,” and changing us into his own image.
At the time of this interview, Eddie is a counselor at Orange High School in Orange, California. He also oversees a federally funded program for children. He has written scores of songs with 38 of them being published. As his other duties will allow, Eddie and his wife Else often travel as a team, leading worship music in conferences and special services. They have two children.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me ... restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” - Psalm 51:10
Lyrics:
Change my heart o God,
make it ever true.
Change my heart o God,
may I be like You.
Change my heart o God,
make it ever true.
Change my heart o God,
may I be like You.
You are the potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.
Change my heart o God,
make it ever true.
Change my heart o God,
may I be like You.
Jesus, o Jesus.
Come and fill Your lamb.
Jesus, o Jesus.
Come and fill Your lamb.
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Bible verses:
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24
Yet You, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, You are The Potter;
we are all the work of Your hand.
Isaiah 54:8
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put
My Spirit in you and move you to follow My
decrees and be careful to keep My laws.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from Your presence
or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your Salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:10-12