Trust and Obey – hymn

The Five Minute Friday word got me thinking about hymns that refer to surrendering. While many of them that have the word surrender in them I don’t know, I stumbled across this one.

This is probably one of the first hymns I learned to sing and it is one that I remember singing always. I remember it from when I was very small. How old I don’t recall but I know, in my great-grandma’s eyes, I was probably “knee high to a grasshopper.” She loved this song and sang it while make soup in the kitchen or sitting by the fire or working on a quilt. I remember her singing it a lot.

And Friday, I started thinking: what does surrender look like? Well, it looks like my mom. Or my grandma. Or my great-grandma. They all did what was needed for their families. They worked hard through unknowns, through illness, through hardship, through lots of laughter and love and longing, through joy, through hope. They looked to God because they knew that in surrendering to Him, there was hope. They knew that surrendering to God didn’t mean that this world would be easier but they knew that by surrendering to Him He would strengthen them to face whatever came their way in this world until He was ready to call them Home to eternity with Him due to their faithfulness in surrendering.

Trusting and obeying God’s word and His will. That is how we surrender. Giving our all to His ways, to His words, to His will. In trusting and obeying God, we show our hope and faith in Him and He will gift us salvation for that trust and obedience.

At Home.

Trust and Obey

words: John H. Sammis (1887)
music: Daniel B. Towner (1887)

1 When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

2 Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away.
Not a doubt nor a fear,
Not a sign nor a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

3 Not a burden we bear,
not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richly repay;
not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross,
but is blest if we trust and obey. [Refrain]

4 But we never can prove
the delights of his love
until all on the altar we lay;
for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey. [Refrain]

5 Then in fellowship sweet
we will sit at his feet,
or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
what he says we will do,
where he sends we will go;
never fear, only trust and obey. [Refrain]

Tagged: hymn