Take

Surrender is the whole vocabulary here. Skillet stacks imperatives, "Take my strength, take my pride," "Break the walls, break my bones," "Rip my rule, rip my will," until nothing self-sufficient is left standing. The speaker asks to be made "a slave" and to have "in-dependency" ripped apart, a pun that treats independence itself as the thing to lose.

The refrain changes the direction of the asking. "Breathe Your life / Breathe Your love" moves from removal to filling, and the second verse hands over hate, hurt and arrogance while asking for fire "'til only You remain." The bridge puts the singer "laid out on my face," tongue out "to taste / Of You and Your death," which ties the surrender to the cross rather than to self-improvement.

Verse three lays gifts and crowns at Christ's feet, finds joy even in bleeding, and asks for "acceptance to my shame." The closing lines shrink to a hushed repeat, "Wanting to know your name." Romans 12:1 (the living sacrifice), Galatians 2:20 (crucified with Christ) and Luke 9:23 (deny yourself, take up your cross) sit close behind the lyric.