Kat&Jared (Kat and Jared Hartmann) are worship leaders and songwriters whose passion is to help people discover the life that comes from friendship with God and spending time in His presence. They have built strong musical and personal bonds thanks in part to nine years spent on the road with Jared's platinum-selling band Flyleaf. I've long enjoyed Jared's guitar work on Flyleaf's catchy and worshipful songs "All Around Me," "Again" and "New Horizons."

As Flyleaf went on hiatus, Kat&Jared knew it was time to take their next step, both as worship leaders and as artists. The result is the new release Kat&Jared EP. I had the chance to speak with Kat and Jared about "We Adore You."

Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

Kat: We wrote this song a few years ago by accident. We were writing the song "Hallelujah" at the time, and Jared is a genius guitar player. The Spirit of God moves through him evidently as he plays in the writing process, and he's constantly making noise and playing a riff while I'm trying to write a melody for the riff he just played. I asked him go back to a riff he had played, and we stopped writing "Hallelujah" and started writing this song. We wrote most of "We Adore You" right then. 

It's a song where we sing about what we want to see in life. That was a particularly difficult time of life for us. One of our closest friends passed away, and he left a widow who was our age and a two year old son. We felt like our purpose was being attacked at the time. If we would have looked at everything in the natural, we would have been really discouraged by what we saw. 

We didn't want to sing a song that glorified all of the things that were difficult about life. We wanted to sing a song that magnified God's goodness. Throughout everything we know, You are good God. Because we believe that You are good, we adore You, we love You and we are willing to be open to You. That's something Jared has always prayed, for us to be open to God and willing to go where He leads us. That's where the song came from.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

Psalm 34:8 (Voice): "Taste of His goodness; see how wonderful the Eternal truly is. Anyone who puts trust in Him will be blessed and comforted."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Voice): "So we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on."

Psalm 22:3 (Voice): "Still, You are holy; You make Your home on the praises of Israel."

Jeremiah 29:11 (Voice): "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Eternal, "plans for peace, not evil, to give you a future and hope--never forget that."

Romans 8:28 (Voice): "We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan."

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV): "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

What is the takeaway message?

Kat: If we can trust the nature of God and His goodness and put our trust in God, He promises to comfort us and to bless us. We don't base our understanding of God's goodness only on what we see, but we base our comfort on keeping our eyes on the eternal prize. God's plans for us are to have peace and hope. That's God's purpose for us. He inhabits our praises, and when we magnify Him, He promises to be with us. 

There's a constant recurring theme throughout the Bible of God giving His kids new names. He remembers our nature and knows that we were formed from dust. We begin to take on the identity of whatever we are struggling with. We think we'll never amount to more than our situation. There are constant reminders in God's Word that whatever the situation, we are more than that situation or failure. We are God's children. That's our true identity. He changed Jacob to Israel, Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah and Simon to Peter. Simon means reed, which can be tossed about in the wind, and Jesus said he was more than that and re-named him Peter, which means rock. Jesus said he was the rock that He would build His church upon. That shakes me up. 

We needed to sing about these things to cope with life. These songs are meant to remind people that there is hope. God wants us to have joy and not be heavy-burdened. Every song on the album is about celebrating His goodness and the full life that He gives us.

Jared: The biggest thing we want people to take away is to come before God and to celebrate. These songs were written out of life experiences, and for us as well it was about what we needed to sing. Usually if God speaks something that resonates with you, it will resonate with others as well.

Lyrics:
We stand in awe at the wonder of Your love
Ohh - You've been so good to us
So merciful, You restore our hope and trust
Ohh - You've been so good to us

You can have it all
We just love to worship You
And as we sing You respond to us

You're changing everything with the hope You bring
And we adore You!
We adore You!
You're doing wondrous things
You're giving us new names
And we adore You!
We adore You!

We're overcome by the thought of all You've done
Ohh - You've been so good to us
You're wonderful, and we can't get enough
Ohh - You've been so good to us

You can have it all
We just love to worship You
And as we sing You respond to us

You're changing everything with the hope You bring
And we adore You!
We adore You!
You're doing wondrous things
You're giving us new names
And we adore You!
We adore You!

Let Your presence fill this place
We are willing have Your way

You're changing everything with the hope You bring
And we adore You!
We adore You!
You're doing wondrous things
You're giving us new names
And we adore You!
We adore You!

Let Your presence fill this place
We are willing have Your way

I applaud Kat and Jared for convicting me that my faith is not just for me and God and can be expressed in outward appreciation for what God has done for us. "We Adore You" is an uplifting, catchy and encouraging song. A great prayer and reminder in this song to remember and sing out is: "Let Your presence fill this place, we are willing have Your way."

A great outcome of memorizing the words of this song is that you are ultimately singing God's Word. Regardless of our circumstances, we need to truly be free in Christ and be happy and filled with joy, like Paul and Silas in prison. As stated in Psalm 147:1 (Voice): "It is good to sing praises to our God, for praise is beautiful and pleasant."

In a lot of ways, the song has a psalmist's vulnerability, like David saying "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" Psalm 34:8 (NKJV). The song uses prayer-filled phrasing like "We're overcome by the thought of all You've done, You've been so good to us." That's a big part of Christian living, praying back to God with thankfulness for what He has given us and remembering to lift up our eyes and our voices to Him who gives all that is good. When God created us in His image, He said "it is very good." Christians are brand-new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit gives us new life, and we don't have to live anymore with our guilt, fears, perfectionism or worries. We are new creations, and we need to live as children of God.

This is one of my favorite songs of the year. I can't get enough of the Biblical truth of the song, and I love when artists take God's Word from the Bible and turn it into a great and catchy song filled with truth. I sing this song to God with all of my heart, knowing that "You're changing everything with the hope You bring, and we adore You! We adore You!" Amen to that!

Watch the lyric video below.