For Holiness of Heart: Meaning, History, and Theology
"Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart"
- Written
- 1953
- Category
- Hymn
- Status
- Verified
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Story
For Holiness of Heart is Howard Thurman’s contemplative prayer from Meditations of the Heart, first published in 1953 and later included as no. 401 in The United Methodist Hymnal. It seeks an inward holiness in which love, integrity, desire, and the Spirit of God are brought into deeper harmony.
Overview
For Holiness of Heart is a short prose prayer by Howard Washington Thurman, not a tune-bearing congregational hymn. Its opening petition asks for deeper holiness at the center of the person, and the prayer then examines the inner life as the place where desire, fear, love, hatred, hope, and spiritual purpose take shape.
The prayer’s distinctive emphasis is integrity. Holiness is not presented as religious appearance or external respectability, but as an inward ordering of desire so that love and the human will are no longer divided against the Spirit of God. That makes the text especially useful for confession, spiritual formation, retreats, Lent, covenant renewal, and worship focused on sanctification.
The United Methodist Hymnal places the prayer in its section on Sanctifying and Perfecting Grace under the themes of personal holiness, Christian perfection, and integrity. Those Methodist editorial categories fit the prayer’s use in that hymnal, while Thurman’s own spirituality emerged from Baptist roots and developed through a broad ecumenical, mystical, and interfaith ministry.
Historical Background
For Holiness of Heart is Howard Thurman’s prayer beginning “Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart.” The uploaded date of 1940 could not be verified. The earliest securely documented publication located for the text is Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart, published by Harper & Brothers in 1953. Boston University’s Howard Thurman Papers Project confirms the 1953 publication of that book, and a Luther Seminary commentary locates this prayer on page 166 of the 1953 edition.
Meditations of the Heart grew out of Thurman’s mature contemplative ministry. Current publisher Beacon Press describes the volume as a collection of prayers, poems, and meditations on prayer, community, and daily life. The book’s meditations were first written for and shared within Thurman’s congregational setting at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, where he served from 1944 until his move to Boston University in 1953. No source located establishes the exact day or year in which this individual prayer was first composed, so 1953 is used here as its earliest verified documentary date rather than as a claim about a surviving manuscript date.
The prayer reflects several recurring features of Thurman’s spirituality. It treats the inner life as morally serious territory, acknowledges that love and destructive impulses can coexist within the same person, and seeks an integrity in which desire is brought into harmony with God’s Spirit. This inward emphasis was never simply private for Thurman: throughout his career he connected spiritual discipline with interracial fellowship, nonviolence, freedom from hatred, and the building of humane community.
In 1989 the United Methodist Church included the prayer as item 401 in The United Methodist Hymnal under the editorial title For Holiness of Heart. Hymnary identifies it explicitly as a prayer and provides no tune information. That distinction matters: the item is intended for spoken or devotional use rather than as a composition with an assigned melody. The next hymnal item, no. 402, is the traditional spiritual Lord, I Want to Be a Christian, whose familiar holiness stanza shares the phrase used in Thurman’s opening line, but the two entries are separate works.
The represented text remains copyrighted. Hymnary states that the United Methodist Hymnal prints it by permission of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, and Beacon Press continues to publish Meditations of the Heart as a copyrighted work. Because Thurman died in 1981, Philippine law’s general life-plus-fifty-year term also has not expired; under Section 214, that period is calculated from the beginning of the year following the relevant event. Accordingly, this record does not reproduce the prayer in the lyrics field.
The prayer’s inclusion in a major denominational hymnal illustrates how twentieth-century hymnals sometimes place spoken prayers, readings, and liturgical texts alongside songs. For Holiness of Heart is best understood within that broader worship-resource function: a compact Thurman meditation used to lead worshipers toward honest self-examination, love, and spiritual wholeness.
Biblical Foundations
No located source identifies a single biblical passage from which Thurman composed this prayer, so the references here are theological companions rather than documented proof of authorial dependence. First Peter 1:15–16 supplies the clearest direct biblical call to holiness: those called by the Holy One are themselves summoned to holy conduct.
Psalm 51:10 closely matches the prayer’s inward orientation by asking God for a clean heart and renewed spirit. Matthew 5:8 likewise places purity in the heart rather than merely in outward religious practice, promising that the pure in heart will see God.
Galatians 5:16–17 is particularly relevant to Thurman’s concern with divided desire. Paul describes the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit and calls believers to walk by the Spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23–24 broadens the theme by presenting sanctification as God’s work in the whole person and grounding hope in the faithfulness of the One who calls.
Verse Explanation
This item is a prose prayer rather than a strophic hymn, so it has no verses or refrain. Its movement begins with a petition for holiness, then turns inward to examine the heart as the source of competing desires, fears, loves, and hostilities.
The central movement asks for a deeper integration of love and moral integrity. The prayer’s goal is not emotional calm for its own sake, but a life in which desire is increasingly brought into harmony with God’s Spirit.
The ending returns to the opening petition, giving the prayer a circular structure. That repetition allows the initial request for holiness to be heard differently after the worshiper has confronted the complexity of the inner life.
Theological Reflection
The prayer centers on sanctification, understood as the transformation of the person toward holiness. Its focus is not first on rule keeping but on the deep sources from which action grows: desire, fear, affection, hostility, hope, and moral purpose. This makes holiness an issue of integrity—whether the inner life is divided against itself or increasingly ordered toward God.
A second theme is grace. The prayer is an appeal to God, not a declaration that disciplined effort alone can purify the heart. That posture resonates with 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, where God is the One who sanctifies and whose faithfulness sustains the process.
The prayer also takes human ambivalence seriously. Love and hatred, hope and fear, noble intention and conflicting desire can occupy the same interior world. Rather than hiding that complexity, Thurman’s spirituality brings it into prayer, where the goal is not denial but a more truthful and integrated self before God.
For Thurman, inward transformation had social consequences. A heart disciplined toward love and integrity becomes less available to hatred, dehumanization, and retaliation. That connection helps explain why his contemplative writings could nourish people engaged in the civil-rights struggle: spiritual formation and social responsibility were distinct but deeply related dimensions of his religious vision.
Church Impact
The most clearly documented hymnal use of For Holiness of Heart is The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989, where it appears as no. 401 within the section on Sanctifying and Perfecting Grace. Its placement beside sung hymns shows the hymnal’s broader role as a worship book containing prayers and readings as well as music.
United Methodist congregations continue to use the prayer in calls to worship, opening prayers, closing prayers, and services focused on holiness or spiritual renewal. Its usefulness comes from its brevity and psychological depth: it can move a congregation from general language about holiness toward honest attention to desire, fear, love, and integrity.
The prayer also carries the wider legacy of Howard Thurman into congregational worship. His contemplative theology influenced generations of pastors, students, civil-rights leaders, and spiritual writers, and this short text gives worshipers direct access to one characteristic aspect of that legacy: the conviction that social and moral transformation requires serious attention to the inner life.
Musical Notes
The United Methodist Hymnal provides no tune for For Holiness of Heart. Hymnary explicitly lists no tune information and identifies the item as a prayer. It should therefore not be assigned a composer merely because its opening line resembles a phrase from the African American spiritual Lord, I Want to Be a Christian.
In worship the text may be spoken by one leader, read responsively if a congregation has an authorized text, or used as a silent devotional prompt. Any newly composed musical setting would be a separate work and would not change the fact that the 1989 hymnal item itself is a spoken prayer without an assigned melody.
Application
- Use the prayer as an invitation to examine the desires and fears that shape choices before focusing only on outward behavior.
- Pair it with Psalm 51:10 and ask what a clean heart and renewed spirit would look like in concrete relationships and decisions.
- Reflect on Galatians 5:16–17 when desires conflict, seeking discernment rather than pretending the inner life is simple or unified.
- Connect holiness with integrity by asking whether professed values and actual habits are moving toward greater consistency.
- Let inward spiritual formation lead outward into practices of love, reconciliation, justice, and resistance to dehumanizing hatred.
Discussion Questions
- Why does the prayer locate the struggle for holiness in the inner life rather than only in outward behavior?
- How do Psalm 51:10 and Galatians 5:16–17 illuminate the prayer’s concern with a divided heart and conflicting desires?
- What is the relationship between holiness and integrity in Christian spiritual formation?
- How can honest attention to fear, hatred, love, and desire become part of prayer rather than something hidden from God?
- In what ways can inward transformation support outward practices of reconciliation, justice, and nonviolence?
Teaching Tips
- Introduce the item accurately as a spoken prayer from Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart, not as a hymn with an assigned tune.
- Correct the date by explaining that 1953 is the earliest verified publication year; no reliable source located supports the uploaded 1940 date.
- Use Psalm 51:10, Galatians 5:16–17, and 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 to frame a discussion of inward renewal and sanctification.
- Briefly explain Thurman’s Baptist roots, mystical formation, interracial ministry, and influence on civil-rights leaders so the prayer is not separated from his wider vocation.
- Because the prayer remains copyrighted, use The United Methodist Hymnal or another authorized source rather than reproducing the complete text without permission.
Sources
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Hymnary.org — The United Methodist Hymnal 1989 no. 401, For Holiness of Heart, Howard Thurman authorship, prayer classification, no tune, and permission notice
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Boston University Howard Thurman Papers Project — Howard Thurman chronology, Meditations of the Heart published by Harper and Brothers in 1953
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Beacon Press — Meditations of the Heart, current publisher description and publication information
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Luther Seminary Working Preacher — Commentary citing For Holiness of Heart from Meditations of the Heart, 1953, page 166
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Boston University Howard Thurman Papers Project — About Howard Thurman, education, ministry, Fellowship Church, Gandhi encounter, Marsh Chapel, and civil-rights influence
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Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute — Howard Thurman biography and relationship to the nonviolent civil-rights movement
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World English Bible Classic — 1 Peter 1
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World English Bible Classic — Psalm 51
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World English Bible Classic — Matthew 5
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World English Bible Classic — Galatians 5
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World English Bible Classic — 1 Thessalonians 5
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U.S. Copyright Office — How Long Does Copyright Protection Last, guidance for pre-1978 works
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LawPhil — Republic Act No. 8293, Sections 213 and 214, Philippine copyright term
View source ↗
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