Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

This text is very heaven-focused. Not from the standpoint that it attempts a description of heaven, but more that it expresses the longing in each believer’s heart for the day when our burdens will be lifted and we will be fully free to praise! The verses each give a different look at how heaven will be a relief to the believer – spanning the freedom from flesh to the rest we will have from trials. The final two lines leave us with a simple, but beautiful vision of the glorious transition we will experience one day. As believers, we are wise to keep our eternal destination ahead of us as a reminder that this world is not our home, and that our longing and expectation for home can bring us hope in any circumstance.

Lyrics

Verse 1:
Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shalt be:
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known;
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heav’n are still my own!

Verse 2:
Man may trouble and distress me,
‘Twill but drive me to Thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me,
Heav’n will bring me sweeter rest.
O ‘tis not in grief to harm me,
While Thy love is left to me;
O ‘twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Verse 3:
Hasten on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heav’n’s eternal days before me,
God’s own hand shall guide me there.
Soon shall close my earthly mission,
Swift shall pass my pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

 

Words by Henry F. Lyte, Music by Jeff Bourque
© 2005 Manicotti Music.
CCLI Song #4814751