Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

One thing I hope to eventually get around to doing on here is to post worship songs and their lyrics along with some (hopefully) edifying comments. When I actually have the time for the comment part, this may be the first song I comment on.

I sang it for the first time in chapel last Thursday at TMS, and listened to it again as I prepared the post. It affected me similarly both times, though this second time a bit more intensely. This is a worship song, friends. Please listen to it (click the link below) while reading the lyrics slowly and meditating on them.

Verse three isn't sung, but the rest are. (I can't figure out why we don't always sing all the verses of songs this good.) As you listen, if it doesn't cause you to (1) smile, (2) cry, (3) repent, and (4) long with joy for our Savior from the depths of your heart, well, you're different than I am. I pray that God would grant you especially #3 and #4.

Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken - Resolved Worship

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.

[Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.]

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.