13TH ANNUAL WE LOVE CHRISTIAN MUSIC AWARDS: Live Ceremony Tuesday, April 8, 2025 - Franklin, TN - Get Tix Here
BEHIND THE SONG WITH KEVIN DAVIS
#359 - "Yours Forever" by Dara Maclean
Learn more about this declaration of faith from one of Christian music's innovators.
 


Musical depth and Christian joy have rarely come together as compellingly as they do in the music of Dara Maclean. Hers is a joyful mix of pop idioms and eternal truths, danceable beats and the good news.

"I love making music you can move and groove to," she says, "but at the same time, as Christian artists we have a responsibility to speak the truth in love."

A singer of incredible grace, power and control as well as a gifted songwriter, she has put together with Dove Award-winning producer Ian Eskelin a debut album that is as fresh and vibrant as any in recent years. Entitled You Got My Attention released on Fervent Records, the project combines the soul and urban pop influences that infuse her musical approach with elevating vocals in service to intelligently uplifting lyrics.
 
Dara grew up outside Fort Worth, Texas, in a family that encouraged her love for music and ministry from her earliest days. She began singing at age 8, then went on to lead worship and actively pursue youth ministry. Maclean continues to serve with her family in their local church. She credits The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with "helping me discover who I wanted to be as an artist. I remember talking to my mom and dad about how she was quoting scripture in her lyrics in such a unique way. I just loved it. Not long after that, I started playing guitar and diving into writing for myself."
 
Heavily Influenced by the era of Motown as well by contemporaries like Adele, Natasha Bedingfield, Ray LaMontagne and Marc Broussard, she has also incorporated the funk and soul she grew up loving into her music. The combination makes for a sound that is pure celebration, that captures as few artists ever have the joy and exuberance of being swept up in God's love. It is an approach she comes by honestly.

"I grew up singing, dancing and acting, and it's been in the church world," she says. "Music has always equaled ministry to me. Ministering to the broken, unloved and discouraged and ultimately showing people God's better way is what's in my heart. It's how I'm wired."
 
"Yours Forever" is Dara's follow-up single to her Top 20 hit singles from You Got My Attention: "Suitcases" and  "Free." The album topped the chart at No. 1 on the iTunes Christian Album Chart. I recently interviewed Dara about "Yours Forever." Here are the answers to the questions I asked her.
 
Please share the personal message behind writing the song "Yours Forever." 
 
I think that it is interesting as you shared with me about how songs minister to you and how you can take one Scripture and dwell on it every day for the rest of our lives, and each day get a new revelation from God about the Father's Heart and the depth of His love for us. There is so much power and clarity in being precise and accurate in declaring the Word of God. Because of that, in my own personal life, someone said to me my biggest strength could also be my biggest weakness. It's regarding matters of the heart. I think about David and how he was such a passionate lover and at the end of his days he was known as a "man after God's own heart."

My heart's cry my whole life has been for God to look at me and say I'm a woman after Your heart. If God says that to me, that's what I'm going for, "clean hands and a pure heart." I think that the lie in life is do this and you'll earn love, do this and you'll be worthy and deemed worthy enough for love in its most pure form. The power of the Gospel is not because of what I've done but because of who He is. He pours out His love for us recklessly, and that causes fruit to remain in my life. The grace of God causes my heart and my mind to be renewed. Even when I fell flat on my face yesterday and felt so ashamed of what I'd done, the blood of Jesus and the love of God that is unfathomable today is new. I can dive into the heart of God. For me, that's enough. That I can understand that I'm whole and I'm blameless. That's what this song is about.
 
Please tell me about the Bible verses you used in writing the song. Any life verse?
 
Philippians 3:7-11: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
 
My life verse is Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
 
What's the take-away message for listeners? 
 
I'm so thankful for my parents. They've never been perfect, but they couldn't have loved me or supported me more. My dad told me he's going to fail me but he loves me dearly. He told me he'd try to be a perfect father because of how much he loves me, but he'd fail me. Then, he told me about our Father who will never leave me, never fail me, and when I fail isn't shocked. On our best day or our worst day our Heavenly Father wants us to run to Him. This is the heart of our Father God in Heaven. As I got older and dealt with relationship issues, if you don't know the Lord and His relationship with you, you'll feel like a failure. You're not going to be perfect and you're going to miss the mark. God wants us to boldly approach the Throne of mercy and grace to receive and obtain what we need from Him. The difference is that the only time exposure of our sins is safe is with our Heavenly Father. The washing of the water of the Word brings true healing. Actually the very thing we've attempted to fill us and be satisfied by can be found only in God. He is the pure, undefiled version of what we really want. My Father and His heart and His love for me is better for me that any version I'll find on earth. Even though I may not see Him, I need to trust and understand that His Way is so much better and dive into Him daily. That will be enough, and I can experience love in a pure way. 1st Corinthians 13 defines love perfectly. It enters my heart and you're spoiled to the things of this world. My heart's cry is "I'm Yours forever" because nothing compares to the love of God.
 
Lyrics:
I used to walk this town
With my head hanging down
I felt so alone
I was so close to giving up
Lost all hope in love
So far from home
Oh, oh,

Thank You for finding me when You did
You changed my life, now I believe
That love is all, that I'll ever need
I promise my heart and all that I am
I'm Yours forever my love

You came and You rescued me
Showed me life as it's meant to be
So beautiful
You love me so differently
Chase all my fears away
I'm finally whole
Oh, oh,

Thank You for finding me when You did
You changed my life, now I believe
That love is all, that I'll ever need
I promise my heart and all that I am

I'm with You
You're right beside me
I feel You near
Right here to guide me
I'm with You
You're right beside me
To guide me home

Thank You for finding me when You did
You changed my life, now I believe
That love is all, that I'll ever need
I promise my heart and all that I am
I'm Yours forever my love

Asbury's Bible commentary on Ephesians 3:20-21: "What does Paul ask of God for these believers? There are two requests. First, he asks God to strengthen them with the power of the Spirit. Paul hopes that as the reality of spiritual power grips them, their resolve to maintain faith in Christ will grow, for they will realize that Christ is all they need for salvation. Second, he prays that they will be empowered to grasp the extent of that love by which they have been saved and made secure. If they can personally approve or acknowledge the love that they cannot comprehend, if they can experience the fullness of Christ's love for them, they will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Divine power is at work in God's people to bring them to divine fullness. Thus God is glorified in the community of redeemed persons in whom the Spirit is at work."
 
I absolutely love this song and this album, which is flawless in my opinion and is one of my Top 3 albums of 2011. God can do immeasurably more than anything and everything one can ask or even imagine and this song is a true celebration of the great biblical truth of "Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us" from Ephesians 3:20.  
 
Dara displays the strongest vocals I've heard in years, and her Brit-pop sounding vocals are similar to Grammy Award winning artist Adele wrapped around Motown style soulful music. Dara Maclean is the best new artist I've heard in CCM since Francesca Battistelli. For sure you'll be hearing her name and her songs. 
 
God is speaking to us in His still small voice as Dara proclaims in many of her songs and as believers we need to take time to "be still and know that He is God."  Are you allowing The Holy Spirit to work in your life? Are you spending time listening to Him? He'll make you free, and God wants to hear from you. "Yours Forever" is a very personal song where Dara Maclean really unveils what's on her heart. I love it when Dara personally prays, "Thank You for finding me when You did, You changed my life, Now I believe that Love is all that I'll ever need, I promise my heart and all that I am, I'm Yours forever my Love." 
 
Dara is clearly a grateful believer who is unashamed of her salvation and many of her songs are invitations into Dara's prayer life. If you don't know how to word your prayers of thankfulness for what Jesus has done for you, just sing along with this incredible song of faith. God speaks to us in different ways and I find myself closest to Him in my times of prayer and reflection, especially with songs of praise and adoration like "Yours Forever." For me, this song reflects what's on my heart and my greatest desire as a follower of Jesus is to live out the Gospel and these songs all help me with my walk and challenge me to gain that "righteousness that comes from God and is by faith". Daily we are presented with the choices of how to use our time, lifestyle choices, pursuit of riches, living for today not knowing what tomorrow has in store for us and questioning our loneliness and looking for meaning.  You can take comfort in knowing that "Nothing compares to the greatness of knowing Jesus." Amen.
 
(You can watch the video here.)

NRT Lead Contributor Kevin Davis is a longtime fan of Christian music, an avid music collector and credits the message of Christian music for leading him to Christ. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and three daughters.

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13TH ANNUAL WE LOVE CHRISTIAN MUSIC AWARDS: Live Ceremony Tuesday, April 8, 2025 - Franklin, TN - Get Tix Here

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