Open the Eyes of My Heart Paul Baloche, 1997

Paul Baloche wrote Open the Eyes of My Heart one morning while he played guitar during a ministry time at his church, Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas. He sang a phrase from a prayer over and over, and the rest of the song grew from it. He says Ephesians 1:18, where Paul prays that the eyes of the heart will be enlightened, inspired it in part.

Years of teaching on biblical worship at conferences also shaped the song. Baloche felt that teaching on the outward forms of worship leaves something out unless the inner life is also changing. He wrote about the song on the PraiseCharts blog in 2011 and said people responded to it quickly. Churches wrote to him to say they had adopted it as a yearly or conference theme and called it the cry of their hearts.

The band Sonicflood recorded the song first, in 1999, on its debut album. Baloche released his own version in 2000 on an album with the same name. Michael W. Smith, Phillips, Craig and Dean, and Randy Travis recorded it later. The sources do not give the exact day Baloche wrote it. The copyright notice is dated 1997, two years before the Sonicflood recording.