Ma Balawath Karana Samide Lyrics by Kasun Kalhara

Lord, you who make me strong
In you I can do all things
In the moment my weak heart wavers
Be the strength I can hold onto, my Lord

Through the little troubles that surface in life
You are the light that lifts me to my feet again
In the shelter of the shade of the cross
Give me the courage to carry on living
My Lord, my Lord, my Lord, my Lord

As the sun goes down behind the western hills
My fingers cling to your hand
Life’s victories and its defeats
Its sorrows and its comforts, I lay them all before you
My Lord, my Lord, my Lord, my Lord

This is a Christian devotional song, a quiet prayer sung to God. The whole song is one person turning to the Lord and asking for the strength to keep going. There is no love story here, no separation or longing for another person. It is the voice of a believer leaning on faith when life feels heavy, and every verse comes back to the same word, “Saminde,” “my Lord,” repeated like a steadying breath.

It opens by naming what God is to the singer: the one who makes him strong, the one in whom he can do anything. Then it admits the truth underneath that confidence, that there are moments when his own heart grows weak and starts to give way. That is exactly when he asks God to become something solid he can hold onto. The prayer is honest about being fragile, and that honesty is what gives it its weight.

The imagery is gentle and rooted in everyday Sri Lankan life. “The shelter of the shade of the cross” places him under the protection of Christ’s crucifixion, the way a person steps into shade from the heat, safe and covered. The picture of clinging to God’s fingers “as the sun goes down behind the western hills” is a tender one. In Sinhala writing the setting sun, sinking behind the far mountains in the west, often stands for the close of the day or the close of a life, the tired evening hour when a person most needs something to hold. He reaches for God’s hand the way a small child reaches for a parent’s at dusk.

By the last verse he is no longer asking only for help. He is handing everything over, the wins and the losses, the sorrow and the comfort alike, laying his whole life in front of his Lord without holding any of it back. What the listener is left with is the feeling of complete trust, the calm that comes from giving up the need to carry it all alone.