I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me
#1037 Hymns—For Home and ChurchLyrics
The Story Behind “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me”
A joyful spiritual whose first singer's name is lost to history — offering God the simplest gift there is: a life He can use, anytime, anywhere.
Passed Down by Voice
No one knows who first sang 'I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me.' The Church's hymn resource says it is 'believed to have been passed down by oral tradition among West and Central African people in the United States,' and the name of its first singer is lost to history. Its earliest known recording dates to 1928, by Blind Benny Paris and his wife Pauline, and it has appeared in printed collections of spirituals for over a century.
Even the word 'gonna' is kept as the song was actually sung — hymnals across many denominations preserve the familiar phrasing generations of congregations have known.
A Song Built to Grow
Like 'This Little Light of Mine,' the song is built for improvisation: I'm gonna live... work... pray... sing so God can use me — 'anytime, anywhere.' Each verse swaps one word and rededicates another piece of an ordinary life. Congregations have added their own verses for generations, and it appears today in hymnals from Methodist to Presbyterian.
That structure is also its doctrine. The song never asks God for anything. It just keeps offering.
The Third Spiritual in the Hymnbook
On June 12, 2025, it was released as hymn #1037 — the third African American spiritual to enter Hymns—For Home and Church, after 'Were You There?' and 'This Little Light of Mine.' Latter-day Saint children had a head start: a children's choir sang it in the Church's Friend to Friend broadcast back in 2022.
The Church's teaching helps for the hymn are wonderfully practical: tap the strong rhythm while you sing, and then go do chores together — cooking, gardening, fixing things — as practice at becoming, in Ammon's words, 'instruments in the hands of God.'
Did You Know?
- The earliest known recording is from 1928, by Blind Benny Paris and his wife Pauline — but the song is older, and its author's name is lost.
- The verses are designed to be swapped and added — live, work, pray, sing — so every congregation makes the song its own.
- Hymnals across many denominations deliberately keep the word 'gonna,' preserving the song as it was actually sung.
- It became the third African American spiritual in the new Latter-day Saint hymnbook, joining 'Were You There?' and 'This Little Light of Mine.'
- The Church's suggested family activity: sing it, then do chores together — living the lyrics immediately.
Scripture Connections
- Alma 26:12 — 'In his strength I can do all things' — Ammon's boast in the Lord, the song's engine.
- Doctrine and Covenants 64:33–34 — 'Be not weary in well-doing... the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind.'
- Doctrine and Covenants 42:29 — 'If thou lovest me... thou wilt serve him' — love measured in willingness.
- 3 Nephi 18:24 — 'Hold up your light that it may shine unto the world' — the same offer as its sister spiritual.
Talk About It
Questions to spark a conversation with your family or Primary class:
- What does it mean to live so God can 'use' you? What might He use you for this week?
- The song promises 'anytime, anywhere.' Is there a time or place where it's harder for you to be useful to God?
- Make up your own verse — what word would you put in place of 'live' or 'sing'?
- The song offers God a willing life — anytime, anywhere. What does that teach us about what God values?
Teaching Resources
Attribution
Music by: African American spiritual, 20th century; arr. 2025 | I’M GONNA LIVE
Text by: African American spiritual, 20th century
Audio files from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints