A little bit of info on why I do this found here: Christian Song Rewrites
Jesus Strong and Kind
Written by CityAlight
Before we jump in, I want to mention that it raises a little flag in my mind when we use the word “if” when speaking about people who are “weak” or “fearful” or “lost”. This, to me, implies that these are optional, occasional, or that we can choose to stop them. When in reality, these things are all in the very core of every dead heart-of-stone which is in every person and is producing all kinds of rot and decay. For those of us who are in Christ, Jesus removed our dead stone-hearts and died with them, slaying them, and when He was raised, Christ Himself became for us a heart of flesh, living within us. While the dead heart has been removed and Christ is now our life, we still experience evidence of the rot and decay which will cling to us until our days on this earth end, when we are raised with Christ. We are everything that is wretched, Jesus is everything that is lovely. This is why I will be reworking the “if” in each verse.
Verse 1
Jesus said
That if I thirst
I should come to him
No one else can satisfy
I should come to him.
In the first verse we refer to Jesus’s statement, “Come to me, all you who thirst” which we find in John 4 and 7 and in Revelation 22. In the fourth line of this verse we contrast our feeling of thirst with feeling satisfied. This implies to me that we are singing of a thirst that is a kind of discontent or longing feeling. Therefore the song proclaims that if I go to Jesus with these feelings, Jesus will make me feel satisfied, content, and/or no longer longing.
The Old Testament is full of imagery about water and being thirsty and Jesus explains them in John 7:37-39.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39
Jesus explains that the imagery of thirst and living water in the Old Testament points to His Spirit which would be soon given to all who are saved by His life, death, and resurrection. We can assume that our thirst then has the flavor of an understanding within us of our own deficiencies, an acceptance that we are sinful, and a desire for the life, righteousness and forgiveness which are found freely in Jesus Christ. This is talk of salvation, not of feeling discontent or longing.
Since this verse and the final verse both cover salvation, I will simply omit this verse. The final verse stands alone just fine.
Verse 2
Jesus said
If I am weak
I should come to him
No one else can be my strength
I should come to him.
In verse two, we sing that if we come to Jesus when we are weak, He will be our strength. Weakness implies that we have attempted to do something and were ineffective so to me this verse implies that when my own strength fails to accomplish something, I can get Jesus to do it for me. If I’m too weak to overcome the desire to steal that cookie off the counter, I can turn to Jesus and He is guaranteed to give me the strength to overcome this temptation.
The Scriptures say that we are all, in fact, completely weak, that we are all wretched in and of ourselves, and that we have no ability to follow God’s law. We are nothing but weak, and this has resulted in separation from God as well as coming wrath and death on the day of judgement. Jesus, who is God in the flesh, was strong and fulfilled the law on our behalf. Then He suffered the wrath, separation, and death that we all earned, and when He arose, He gave us those things for our very own. When we stand before God on the day of judgement, we will not stand because of anything we have done, but on everything Jesus did for and gave to us. This is the gospel.
Verse 2 Rewrite
Jesus said
Since we are weak
He became our strength
We could not fulfill God’s law
He was strong for us.
Verse 3
Jesus said
That if I fear
I should come to him
No one else can be my shield
I should come to him .
In the third verse we sing that when we experience fear, we can come to Jesus and implies that He will protect us from the thing of which we’re afraid. Again we misunderstand promises that Jesus makes for salvation when we insert them into earthly circumstantial things. Jesus is our shield, He took the full brunt of God’s wrath which we deserved, His salvation protects us. Jesus promises that not anything we or anyone else does can snatch us from His hands. His love is secure, this too is a shield for us. But Jesus makes no promises to protect us from difficulty or pain or suffering or failings but instead warns that we should expect these things.
When we are afraid we turn to Jesus because He is love; when we deserved wrath He proved His infinite love by dying for us. When we are afraid we come to Jesus because His love is immovable; for though our actions towards other people shifts as our moods change, His love cannot shift even a smidge because His character is sure. When we are afraid we come to Jesus because it is in His righteousness that we stand. When we are afraid we come to Jesus who is our life and who is working out God’s will by the power of the Spirit. When we are afraid, we come to Jesus and we see the One who’s love is massive and unchanging and we remember that this loving Jesus has set Himself on our side against sin, death and hell and called us His brother. And though it may not ease our fears in the moment, we do well to set our eyes on Jesus, our only hope.
Verse 3 Rewrite
Jesus said
That when we fear
Comfort lies in Him
He works His will, His love remains
Jesus is our hope
Verse 4
Jesus said
If I am lost
He will come to me
And he showed me on that cross
He will come to me.
In the fourth verse we sing that Jesus will come for us when we are lost but because the example in the fourth line is the kind of lost from which we are saved by the blood of Jesus, I’m assuming the lost feeling from the second line refers to more of a sense of being lost, a listlessness or doubt. Again, Jesus didn’t promise to rescue us from our hard circumstances, He asks us to trust Him and His salvation in the midst of the hard circumstances so I’m going to rewrite this verse in reference to spiritual lostness instead.
Verse 4 Rewrite
Jesus said that we were lost
For us He lived and died
No longer lost, we now are found
We belong to Him.
Chorus
For the Lord is good and faithful
He will keep us day and night
We can always run to Jesus
Jesus, strong and kind
The chorus feels vague to me and now doesn’t fit the other verses I’ve written so I have summarized some of the thoughts from the previous verses for a rewrite of the chorus.
Chorus Rewrite
God’s love is sure and faithful
He delights in Jesus Christ
His smile o’er us is now secure
‘Cuz we are one with Christ.
Everyday Scriptures 