It is always fun to watch a person develop, grow and express their God-given talents in their chosen field of ministry.

I first heard Holly Starr's music in 2008 when she released her debut album Embraced, which features the songs "Majestic" and "I Love You Anyway." Since then, she has released two more albums: 2010's Tapestry, which includes "Undertow" and "Psalm 23" and her most successful album to date, 2012's Focus. The album was preceded by the single "Let Go," and also includes the hit songs "Don't Have Love" and "Through My Father's Eyes."

With each successive album and song, I hear the maturation of a young woman learning to rely increasingly on the grace of God to help her "focus" on what really matters, to find her true identity in the Person of Jesus Christ, knowing that we are all made in God's image. Upon hearing Holly perform her infectious and worshipful songs on main stage at Creation Festival, I was really impressed by how powerfully her songs translate in a corporate worship setting. Later, I took my three daughters to meet her and sing along with her songs at a concert last fall. We were all blessed to speak with Holly about her newest song "Grace for All" before the concert.

Please tell me the personal story behind writing this song.

This song represents where God has brought me, specifically in making music. I started writing songs when I was 14 years old. I'm from a really small town, and there was really no music in my town of about 4,000 people. When I started writing songs, I had dreams but didn't think I could really live them out.

When I turned 18, I had the opportunity to play at Creation Festival in Washington, and shortly before that I had the chance to open for LeAnn Rimes. I had these crazy, random opportunities like that where I didn't feel good enough or that I could measure up musically as an artist. I needed to learn to give God all of the credit, and God was beginning to teach me that it doesn't necessarily depend on how good you are, how prepared you feel, or how old you are.

Through those experiences, God taught me that I can be a person full of brokenness and insecurities, and as long as I'm willing to follow where He's asking me to go and willing to go where He leads me and step into the opportunities He gives me, He'll be right there and help me out.

That's been my story from that day until today. There's never been a concert or moment where I feel like I have it all together. It happens that way for a reason so that we learn to depend on God and rely on Him to meet us in that place. I wrote this song from what's been building inside of me for a long time, and I wanted to express it.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV): "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

What is the takeaway message?

That Bible verse is very challenging. God's strength is made perfect in my weakness. Who wants to show off their weaknesses? Very tangibly, I have experienced that by being on stage and sharing my story when I wasn't feeling good enough. God kept on faithfully meeting me in those places and gifting me in ways I didn't know I had. His grace has been enough for me, and I want people to know that.

It's so easy to have an idea of what you have to look like and who you need to be. In the world we're faced with images and things that we feel we have to reflect. We can't always say how we feel about things and be honest because we have to keep up this perception of ourselves that we want other people to see. The reality is that to Jesus, it's all about the heart.

In my ministry, I want to be as real as possible. I want to be transparent and honest. In this generation we are faced with so much opposition. There are more media images and ways to compare ourselves than ever before. It comes down to knowing that we are each individuals trying to figure out life. I like to encourage people by saying, "here's my story and what I've gone through and this is how God's grace has met me in those places."

This song is the crux of all that I wish to share. In those vulnerable moments, you can know that God will be right there with you. There's strength and beauty in that. God created the universe and the stars, and He also created us and loves us so deeply, intimately and personally. That's just overwhelming to me, knowing that. No matter who you are, what you look like, what you feel you are not, you are created uniquely, beautiful, there is no flaw in you.

This whole Christian walk is about having faith in who God is, and believing it in the midst of everything we are going through. We are His. If we don't walk in that Truth, we are walking in lies.

Lyrics:
I have no secrets from my God
No weakness I could hide
There is no path my feet could trod;
My Father could not find
He knows the doubts that flood my soul;
Hears my questions great and small
Takes my burdens every one.
He has Grace for All

I will remember the heavy cross;
Where Jesus bled and died
When no one else could pay the cost
Through death He brought me life.
He knew the greatness of my fall;
Still He broke down every wall
All my sins are washed away,
He has Grace for all.

His grace is all I need, His power when I'm weak.
And His love that carries me, will always be enough.

Bring all your troubles and lay them down;
Jesus will care for you
Know the darkness may surround;
His love will see you through
He knows the pain of a weary heart;
He will hear you when you call
He will meet you where you are.
He has Grace for all.

His grace is all I need, His power when I'm weak.
And His love that carries me will always be enough

And His love that carries me will always be enough


My family has been very blessed by Holly's amazing new modern hymn, "Grace for All." We were discussing as a family the meaning of Holly's album title Focus. I explained to my daughters that rather than focusing on the way they see themselves, it's about knowing the way God thinks of them. I'm crazy in love with all of my girls, but God loves all of us even more than we can imagine. We can take comfort knowing that "His grace is all I need."

I really connect to the lyric in the song "He will meet you where you are." No matter where you are, no matter what you've done, God will find you if you call out to Him sincerely and ask Him for His grace. Even once we are saved, we sometimes beat ourselves up about failure and feel unworthy of God's love. That's the point: we aren't worthy. We can't earn grace. It is a gift of unmerited favor from God for His children. Scripture tells us, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8).

The song is connected to Holly's faith in God and also to her story as an emerging artist. She has had to rely on God's grace to live her dream of recording music, and has offered this hymn of praise back to God and to the Church. Scripture tells us, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). This song is a great way to pray in gratitude and submission to God and to affirm to Him and each other that "His grace is all I need, His power when I'm weak, His love that carries me will always be enough." Amen to that!

(Watch the lyric video here.)