Atlanta-based Casting Crowns has consistently delivered music that points believers back to what truly matters, and the band does so yet again with new album, Thrive. The project includes 12 new songs that connect to lead singer Mark Hall's new devotional book of the same title, which is divided into sections exploring the themes of digging deep and reaching out. 

The energetic and infectious title track "Thrive" establishes the thesis statements of the album with the lyrics, "Into Your Word we're digging deep to know our Father's heart / into the world we're reaching out to show them who You are." 

The Christian walk entails both knowing God's Word and being the hands and feet of Jesus, which is what the band has demonstrated in an unwavering commitment to singing songs about. I've always greatly respected their music ministry and have come to cherish that focus. Every song encourages Christians to have a faith grounded in the Truth of the Bible and to live out the words of James 4:17 (NKJV): "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

This album is all about encouraging listeners that we can do more than just survive; we were made to thrive. These songs are an excellent companion for those looking to go deeper than just consuming music and instead want to experience the Truth of God's Word washing over you. I had the great opportunity to interview Mark Hall in person about "All You've Ever Wanted."

Please tell me the personal story behind writing this song.

I took my youth group on a mission trip a while back to Alabama, and we were in Geneva, Alabama. Having grown up there, we saw something that you don't see very often. There is a tree at Two Rivers Junction that is 300 years old. It is the biggest tree I've ever seen on this side of the country. You can go to California and see giant trees, but we've got a lot of pine trees and tornadoes have knocked a lot of bigger trees over. The city is in a flood zone and so the tree is massive. They pick bicycles out of the branches after floods. 

We were climbing the tree and playing in it, and the farmer who hosted us for the day told us that if you wiped all of the dirt away you would see that there are just as many roots as there are limbs. The tree has just as strong of a base of roots as it does reach. I had just been going through Psalm 1 with my teenagers. I gathered them together and we read it. 

Some believers are all roots. They want to know more and learn more and know about theology and Greek words. They want to study new things all the time but they don't love people, so it is sort of useless. Then there are believers who are all reach. They want to love, help, and rescue and save but they are never in the Word and they don't know where the love comes from or how it is supposed to continue. When life hits, they blow over. 

Psalm 1 tells us that we should be like a tree planted by streams of water. The water is where life comes from. When you dig those roots in, so much of my time as a believer has been spent on trying to be awesome for God and I'm learning that you can't hang fruit. It's called the fruit of the Spirit. A lot of this song is part of the story of coming to understand that God is calling me to know Him and to make Him known. Not just make Him known.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song? 

Psalm 1:1-3 (NKJV): "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."

What is the takeaway message?

A lot of times we think or act like God has loaned us something that we need to pay off, treat right or earn back. You always feel like you are on strike two. When you look at the picture of the tree, I tell my students and families that when you get into the Word yourself, you start letting God define Himself to you. Because if you aren't in the Word, you'll come up with your own version of Who He is. You'll come up with a God who is always mad at you, and whose team you are never good enough to be on. You're going to think logically, and you're going to miss it. 

When you get into the Word, God shows you Who He is. He also shows who you are. There's a heavy emphasis on this album and in the book about spending time in God's Word and hungering to know Him. Not to just go be and act like Him, but just to know Him. This song is diving into that unsettled feeling of thinking I'm not being a very good Christian. I'm not doing the right stuff. When you find yourself in that place, the tendency is to say sorry God, let me fix it. I'm going to sing louder, read harder, do better, and You're going to be proud of me again. That's not how He works. Paul battles this topic in his epistles. 

There is faith and works in our relationship with God. The problem is there is a monster on both sides of the road ready to eat you. You can try to earn God's love and never feel like you are doing it. You can say He's got me, so I can do whatever I want, and then there's no Power of the Holy Spirit or fellowship with Him in your life. When I'm in the Word, I see that God desires a deeper relationship with us. 

The book of Galatians is important because in that church, the people started out with Jesus. Another group told them Jesus is great but you need to celebrate this festival and you shouldn't eat this food and they added things to Jesus. That's the angriest you see Paul in his letters. He says, "How can you be so bewitched starting out with Jesus and trying to make yourself better in your flesh?" 

That's where we all live. We all start out with Jesus. Somewhere we stop looking up, and we start looking around. We start looking in the mirror and we see everything He is trying to free us from and let the Enemy turn that conviction and Godly sorrow into guilt. You start to think you aren't a Christian. Everything in life says that you are what you do. If you stop practicing football, you aren't a player. If you aren't praying enough or not reading His Word enough, you start diagnosing yourself as not good enough. Only Jesus makes us right with God. The battle has been fought and won by Jesus.

Lyrics:
I just looked up today
And realized how far away I am
From where You are
You gave me life worth dying for
But between the altar and the door
I bought the lies that promised more
And here I go again

Lord I know I let you down
But somehow I will make You proud
I'll turn this sinking ship around
And make it back to You

But all my deeds and my good name
Are just dirty rags that tear and strain
To cover all my guilty stains
That you've already washed away

'Cause all You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted was my heart
Freedom's arms are open
My chains have all been broken
Relentless love has called me from the start
And all You wanted was my heart

I was chasing healing when I'd been made well
I was fighting battles when You conquered hell
Living free but from a prison cell
Lord, I lay that down today

So I'll stop living off of how I feel
And start standing on Your truth revealed
Jesus is my strength, my shield
And He will never fail me

'Cause all You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted was my heart
Freedom's arms are open
My chains have all been broken
Relentless love has called me from the start
And all You wanted was my heart

No more chains, I've been set free
No more fighting battles You have won for me
Now in Christ I stand complete

All You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted
All You've ever wanted was my heart
Freedom's arms are open
My chains have all been broken
Relentless love has called me from the start
And all You wanted was my heart

As Christians, our daily walk is about knowing Jesus and making Him known. We are all the hands and feet of Jesus, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Lead singer Mark Hall writes and sings some of the best lyrics in the business. Often, he sings about not being content with where we are but getting to be where we should be. That theme continues with this excellent song, which has a clever inclusion of classic Crowns song titles "The Altar and the Door" and "Here I Go Again" in the lyrics. Like those songs, this song deals with our struggle with failure, the Enemy's biggest trick. 

This song gives an excellent depiction of God's heart. Rather than beat ourselves up and say, I blew it, "between the altar and the door," and "here I go again," God's arms are open wide waiting for our whole hearts to be committed to Him.

The entire album and book is inspired by Psalm 1. On page 115 of the book Thrive, Mark Hall says "We fail because we take a God-given need and try to fill it with the world's answer. That's what sin is." This song answers that struggle with the declaration: "So I'll stop living off of how I feel / And start standing on Your truth revealed / Jesus is my strength, my shield / And He will never fail me." Amen to that!

(Watch the lyric video here.)