Steel and Silk
A strong, tender worship song for older kids and preteens (about ages 9–13), from the album "Love Not This World." Steel (fierce, unyielding faith) is fused with silk (gentleness, mercy, meekness): be strong in the Lord — His armor outside, His tender heart within — strong enough to be gentle. The whole song lands on Jesus, the bond who holds us: we stand in Him.
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Lyrics · Singalong
Steel and Silk — Lyrics
Intro
Lord, we are weak — so clothe us in Your strength Dress us in Your love, and light the fire; don't let it run cold.
Verse 1
Lord, the day is dark and evil, and we cannot stand alone, so be strong in us to go on — in Your power, never our own! buckle truth around us tightly, set Your righteousness as steel, shoe our feet with peace, the gospel — make us ready, make us real.
Pre-Chorus
Take the shield of faith and raise it, quench the fiery dart; set salvation as a helmet, Your Word ready in our heart.
Chorus
So clothe us in steel, Lord — armor on the outside, strong; and silk beneath the steel, where the tender heart belongs; the hard guards the soft within, so the gentle won't go cold — strong enough to be gentle, Lord… brave and bold. We can't forge a heart like this — the evil help us to resist — clothe us, Lord; hold us Lord, that onward we may go!
Verse 2 (the silk)
Now next to the heart, Lord, weave the silk — the mercy and the meek, compassion, kindness, patience, we seek — for the weary and the weak! let us bear with one another, and forgive as we've been borne, and binding all together — love, the bond no war has torn.
Chorus
So clothe us in steel, Lord — armor on the outside, strong; and silk beneath the steel, where the tender heart belongs; the hard guards the soft within, so the gentle won't go cold — strong enough to be gentle, Lord… brave and bold. We can't forge a heart like this — the evil help us to resist — clothe us, Lord; hold us Lord, that onward we may go!
The Fight
For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but powers in the dark; the evil day is breaking, it is stark — help us stand, and hold the mark! the fiery darts are flying — lift the shield, the faith, the flame; in the strength of Your might, not ours, we fight in Jesus' name.
The Fervor
But don't let us wear it tepid, Lord — neither cold nor barely warm — set us boiling, light the storm; fervent in the spirit, serving — and above all, fervent love, the heat that won't go cold on us, the holy fire from above. For every piece is Yours, my Lord — Your truth, Your peace, Your blood; You wore the cross to clothe us, and the helmet by Your Son; so we run to the throne of grace — to find mercy at a timely pace — abide in us and arm us, Lord; by Your desire, doing and strength.
Stand
And when the fight is finished, Lord — when we have done it all — let us stand, to what You call; by Your hand uplifts the small! the darkest of all darknesses may rise before us all, but it's vanquished — it is finished — Christ has won; the serpent falls. We were never strong — but seated, raised with Christ in heavenly place; more than conquerors, and standing — not by might, but by His grace. Strong enough to be gentle, Lord; brave enough to stay — the war is Yours, the victory Yours… and we stand in You today.
Outro
Steel on the outside, silk beneath… and the whole of it on fire — not by our hand, Lord, but by Yours: Your love, our one attire. Strong enough to be gentle now… Jesus — You're the bond. We stand.
Bible verse · Little lesson
A verse to hide in your heart
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Little lesson for little hearts
The world thinks strength and gentleness are opposites — that to be strong you must be hard, and to be kind you must be weak. The Bible shows us something better: real strength is "steel and silk." The steel is the armour of God: "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might… that ye may be able to stand" (Ephesians 6:10–13). Notice every piece is HIS — the belt of His truth, the breastplate of His righteousness, the gospel of His peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. We do not forge this strength ourselves; He clothes us, and we wear it in prayer. And here is the wonder: His "strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9) — so the weak and the small can stand. The silk is worn next to the heart: "gentleness" is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), and we put on "kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering… and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness" (Colossians 3:12–14). The hard guards the soft, so the tender heart never has to go cold in a hard world — that is what it means to be strong enough to be gentle. The fight is real ("we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but… against spiritual wickedness"), but the victory is already Christ's: it is finished, the serpent's head is crushed, and we are "raised up together, and… seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). So we are not strong on our own — we are "more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Jesus is the bond who holds us together and holds us up. In Him, you can be brave and tender at once. In Him, having done all, you stand.
