Give up the world, Christ to obtain

1
Give up the world, Christ to obtain,
  He is your heart’s very need;
What else can you desire or seek?
  All things are empty indeed!
  He is so rich, He is so full,
  He can fulfill all your needs!
He is so good, He is so sweet,
    All your desire He exceeds!
2
Give up the world, Christ to obtain,
  He is the One you require;
Once you receive this glorious Christ,
  Never the rest you’ll desire.
3
Though very great is all the world,
  And very small is your heart,
Yet the great world with all its wealth
  Never can fill your small heart.
4
If you have Christ, you have all joys;
  Without this Christ, only pains;
Where there is Christ there morning is;
  Where He is not, night remains.

Copyright Living Stream Ministry. Used by permission.

19
Sharon

Rancho Cordova, California, United States

He is so rich, He is so full,

He can fulfill all your needs!

He is so good, He is so sweet,

All your desire He exceeds!


Rebecca Fan

Fairfax, VA, United States

Matt 8:22 "... Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead"

Christ can only be rich to us if we are not already occupied with other things.


Bob Murphy

Jurupa Valley (Mira Loma), California, United States

The only way to obtain Christ is to set your mind on “the things above, ” (Christ & the Church) the eternal things which are above and not the temporal things that are passing away on the earth, distractions that take us away from God. The Church is heavenly, glorious, divine and is therefore is of God. 1Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the church OF GOD, which is in Corinth…”

Thus, the church has no name other than the fact that a certain number of people have received God’s life, in Christ, and meet together in a given city, therefore the ground of the church in that city is according to God and not according to man. Hallelujah!


M Troughton

Vallejo, CA, United States

Give up the world, Christ to obtain. Oh Lord Jesus, our heart is so small, but You desire to fill our small heart. This world cannot fill any man’s small heart, even though the world is so big. We love You. We want You only. Today and everyday.


Daniel Gedeon

Lubbock, TX, United States

He is so rich, He is so full!


Joseph

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

He is so rich, He is so full,

He can fulfill all your needs!

He is so good, He is so sweet,

All your desire He exceeds!

If you have Christ, you have all joys;

Without this Christ, only pains;

Where there is Christ there morning is;

Where He is not, night remains


Amos Kimani

Naivasha, Nakuru, Kenya

Very good hymn with very good message. It helps us to deny our flesh which lust on earthly things as opposed to our spirit which desires heavenly things. Brother Paul told us that the things we see are temporal, but things unseen are permanent. Therefore brothers and sisters let us focus on heaven things


Jeffrey

Los Angeles, California, United States

If you have Christ, you have all joys!


Yuri

OR, United States

HALLELUJAH! He is so rich, He is so full, He is so sweet. HALLELUJAH!!!!! This rich One can live in us to be the living One in us! Oh dear ones let us enjoy Him more than ever before! Lord keep enlarging our small hearts for only more and more of You!!!


VNadruku

Suva, Sigatoka, Fiji

Praise the Lord!!

It's the first time I come across this hymn... It is so true and relevant to life...The message it gives cannot be ignored.

Where there is Christ, life brightens up!!

Lord please help me to understand Your love.

In 1947, while I was taking a walk in a park in Shanghai, I composed a hymn entitled "Give Up the World, Christ to Obtain" (Hymns, #1025). I appreciate stanza 3 the most, which says, (Though very great is all the world, / And very small is your heart, / Yet the great world with all its wealth / Never can fill your small heart." This hymn touches people's feelings very much. People are touched and stirred up as soon as they sing it; it is like they were injected with a stimulant.

I wrote this hymn in 1947. During that year I conducted a conference in Shanghai, and after that conference I spent a day resting in a scenic area. As I was strolling there, I was humming some random melodies to myself. While I was thus musing, verse three of the hymn came to me:

Though very great is all the world,

And very small is your heart,

Yet the great world with all its wealth,

Never can fill your small heart.

Now I would ask all the brothers and sisters over sixty years old to stand up and sing this verse. Your singing is too proper. There is no need to be so proper. You have to sing like I do. I break all the rules of singing, yet I stir up others' spirits. All of you older sisters should go to sing in your home meetings. You have to fire up everyone there. Do not think that only the young people can catch fire. If all the older ones sit still in the meeting, how can we have a good home meeting? But if the older ones would sing, their singing would surely cause the meeting to come alive. On this point I would ask you older ones to learn of me. Do not sing too properly. When you break the rules, sometimes you sing even better. Today I may be the oldest one among all of you. I do not sing well, but I sing with life. Please do not act like an old man or woman. You must be bold to sing.

...Hymns are the easiest way to stir up our spirit because they are the expressions of the poets' sentiments. Take, for example, "Give up the world, Christ to obtain" (Hymns, #1025). In the summer of 1948 I was in Shanghai, busy and tired from the work. One day some co-workers and I arranged to go to a park for a rest. It was then that this hymn was written. Whenever we sing this hymn in the meetings, our tiredness easily goes away and our spirits are refreshed. Sometimes you may be the first to come to the meeting. Even though you are only one person, you can start a hymn, playing and singing to yourself. As the brothers and sisters arrive one by one, they can join you in the singing. In this way, the meetings spontaneously will be enlivened.

Living Stream Ministry

Piano Hymns