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Only by His Mercy

"If you ask me about my Savior, I'll tell you of His love"

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Lyrics

If you ask me about my Savior
I’ll tell you of His love
Pure and unconditional
A blessing from above
And long before I knew Him well
His love was there for me to find
If I opened up my eyes, opened up my heart
Opened up my mind

It is only by His mercy
That a sinner such as I
Can reach out for His hand, say “I don’t understand”
Then find the strength to try
It is only by His mercy
I can come into this place
Drop down to my knees, pray “Father, hear me, please”
And rest in His embrace

If you ask about my Savior
I’ll tell you of His grace
A gift of The Divinity
For all the human race
And long before I knew Him well
His grace was there for all to see
His grace is there for you
His grace is there for me

About this song

For a long time, it seemed like this song didn't want to be written. I wrote the chorus right on the heels of my first-ever Christian song, "My Eyes Are Ever on You." I thought enough of the chorus that I was determined to come up with verses that were of comparable quality. They just wouldn't come, even as I switched back and forth between singing *about* God ("only by His mercy") and singing *to* God ("only by Your mercy"). For a good six or seven months, I would try out an idea, reject it, leave the song alone for a while and then repeat the process. Nothing came of it.

Ultimately, my patience paid off. I have no insight whatsoever into what "clicked" or what changed but one day, driving to work, I came up with the "if you ask me 'bout my savior" line. After that, the verses nearly wrote themselves. As I prepared to use this as "special music" in a service some time later, I added the instrumental bridge and another chorus repeat.

This song is one of my personal favorites of what I've written.

Chords

I don't have a final recording of this yet and I've experimented with a number of different keys. I have chord charts in G [click] (where I wrote it) and Bb[click].