Worship artist Phil Wickham writes about grace beyond merit

Phil Wickham, a worship music artist with a 20-year career, released a devotional book titled Everyday Hallelujah about integrating worship into all of life. At 42, Wickham reflected on a midlife awareness moment and found himself wrestling with questions about his own spiritual life despite spending two decades singing about grace. He discovered he still struggles with a merit-based approach to God, traced partly to church teachings from his childhood that tied spiritual practices like daily scripture reading to salvation. Through systematic study of scripture over five years, Wickham centered his understanding on the tearing of the temple veil at the crucifixion, which he reads as God removing all barriers to His presence. The book moves beyond music to explore what Wickham calls the "hallelujah" in everyday acts—doing dishes, opening doors, showing patience with children, and going the extra mile. Wickham emphasizes that authentic worship requires releasing the attempt to earn God's approval through effort or performance. He acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining this posture and described it as a lesson he must continually relearn throughout his life.

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Source: Relevant Magazine — https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/music/phil-wickham-has-sung-about-grace-for-20-years-he-still-catches-himself-trying-to-earn-it/