About The Song
God Will appears on Patty Loveless’s 1991 album Up Against My Heart, released September 3 by MCA Nashville. Lyle Lovett wrote the song. Emory Gordy Jr. and Tony Brown produced the recording. The track runs just under three minutes and sits near the end of the album.
Lovett first recorded it for his 1986 self-titled debut. Loveless had performed the song live for several years before committing it to tape. Fans regularly asked where they could buy her version. She told them it still belonged to Lovett. Because it had become one of her favorites on the road, she chose to include it on Up Against My Heart.
The song was issued as the B-side of the single “Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way),” which reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in late 1991. “God Will” itself was never released as an A-side and did not appear on the country singles chart.
The lyric speaks directly to an unfaithful partner. It asks who continues to trust after nights spent running around, who still claims to want the person after the running ends, and who keeps loving after the lies. The answer is clear and repeated: God does, but I don’t. God will, but I won’t. That is the difference between God and the singer.
The album Up Against My Heart was Loveless’s final studio release for MCA before she moved to Epic Records. It produced the top-three hit that carried this song on its reverse side and continued the run of strong country singles she had built through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The recording remains a quiet favorite among listeners who know the deeper cuts from that period. Its power rests in the plain refusal it states. Forgiveness may be divine. Human patience has limits, and those limits have been reached.
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Lyric
Who keeps on trusting you
When you been cheating
Spending your nights on the town
Who keeps on saying
That she still wants you
When you’re through running around
Who keeps on loving you
When you been lying
Saying things that ain’t what they seemWell, God does, but I don’t
God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and meGod does, but I don’t
God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and meSo who says she’ll forgive you
Says that she’ll miss you
And dream of your sweet memoryWell, God does, but I don’t
God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference
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God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and meGod does, but I don’t
God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and me