by Matt Conner

Meredith Andrews has one of the spring’s most anticipated christian music releases with Faith and Wonder, her first ever live recording featuring beautiful moments of spontaneous worship and anthems for the global church. Given her accomplished background as a solo artist and member of Vertical Worship, we recently asked the two-time Dove Award winner to tell us the song she loves to sing more than any other.

Here is what she had to say:
I’m excited about all of the songs and they’re all like children to me that I birthed. [Laughs] They all have ties to my heart and are special in their own unique ways, but there’s one song on this new project, Faith and Wonder, that I would say if I could only sing one song for the rest of my life, it would be this song called “Have To Have.”

The reason I say it’s my life song is because of what it says. The chorus is really simple, “I have to have your presence/ I have to know the sound of your voice/ I love to touch the heavens/ I don’t want to live without you.” Then the bridge says, “Let your heart be my heart/ Let your thoughts be my thoughts/ Let your way be my way/ I have to have you.”

It’s just this idea of saying, “God, I could gain the whole world and all the success and influence, which could be great, but at the end of the day, God, I just want your presence. I don’t even want anything you can give me. I don’t want a miracle or a blessing. I just want you.” If that can always be the core of who I am, then I feel that’s the best place to stay. It’s John 15 and abiding in Him. That’s it.

A few years ago, my husband and I were on staff at a church in Chicago, and we used to be a part of a worship platform called Vertical. It was during the last recording we did with them, which was the Frontiers record. There was a spontaneous moment during one of the songs I was leading, and I just let my heart come out as I sang out to the Lord. I was singing something like, “God, I’m desperate for your presence. I have to have your presence.”

My friend Mia Fieldes, who is a songwriter, was there at the recording. Fast forward three years, we were all in the writing room this summer and she said, “Meredith, I’ve always wanted to write a song with you from that spontaneous moment when you started saying, ‘God, I have to have your presence.'” I said, “Well, now you tell me.” [Laughs] So the song came really naturally and easily and I was over the moon. I was shouting and crying because I knew this was the song I wanted to sing for a long time.

Listen to the lyric video for “Have to Have” here:

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