Apa Dubalayai Kiya Lyrics by Bro. Charles Thomas

You did not let us go, saying that we are weak,
you came to us in lowly guise, O God the Father
we did not know that you are the answer,
Jesus the Lord, who by love defeated sin

The power of your love drove the thick darkness away,
our weakness is seen, and your mighty love is felt
O God, O God, you are my salvation,
my Lord, it was in you that I found my joy

This is a hymn about the great reversal at the heart of the gospel, that God does not despise human weakness but comes down into it. Its opening line answers a fear every honest person carries, that we are too flawed to be wanted: “you did not let us go, saying that we are weak.” Instead of turning away from our frailty, God “came to us in lowly guise,” stooping down, taking humble form, meeting us where we are, as “God the Father.”

The song confesses that this was not obvious. “We did not know that you are the answer.” People search everywhere for solutions to their brokenness without realizing that the answer is a person, “Jesus the Lord, who by love defeated sin.” And that is the key phrase: sin was defeated not by force or condemnation but “by love.” Love was the weapon that won.

The final verse sets human weakness and divine strength side by side, and lets the contrast do its work. “The power of your love drove the thick darkness away,” and in that light “our weakness is seen, and your mighty love is felt.” Seeing how frail we are only makes God’s love loom larger, not smaller. The song ends in glad certainty, “O God, you are my salvation; it was in you that I found my joy.” What the listener is left with is deep reassurance for anyone who feels too weak to be loved by God, the good news that our weakness is exactly what his condescending, sin-defeating love came down to embrace.