Tuesday 15th
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
NIV – ‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.’
ESV – ‘Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’
‘Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.’
F. R. Havergal. RH – 582
The author of today’s hymn, Frances Ridley Havergal, died at the age of 42 but in that time wrote many hymns, research on the internet reveals that she came to faith as a young girl aged around 6 years of age. In 1873 at the age of 37 she read a book called ‘All for Jesus’ about which she said (and I quote) ‘lifted her whole life into sunshine, of which all she had previously experienced was but as pale and passing April gleams, compared with the fullness of summer glory.’
This hymn is about surrendering ‘all for Jesus’, and it is a challenge to all of us who have claimed to have come to faith, how much are we willing to give up for the cause of Christ and the gospel? I remember hearing about someone who would never sing verse 4 because they knew they had money in the bank, but we need to realise that in giving our all to Jesus it does not necessarily mean that it will lead to us having to give up all our gold and silver, it is all about our willingness to give and to respond as and when the challenge or call to do so may come.
I think that if we are genuine and willing to give our life as verse one says, then it is from out of this that we will find everything else will fall into place. For me it brings a challenge as to how do I allow my life to be used, how is my life lived regarding handing it over to the Lordship of Jesus?
The author mentions the various parts of the body, hands, feet, voice, lips, and mentions moments, days, intellect, the will, heart and love, it is a comprehensive usage of language that sums up what we also sing in that other well-known hymn, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’, which has the line in the final verse, ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’. And it does!
The text that the hymnal compilers have attached to this hymn is all about reminding ourselves as to what we have become since we have been born again, we have become temples of the Holy Spirit, this means that we need to allow our lives to be swept up and cleaned up so that nothing can be found within us that will deflect from the glory of God and of what we are in Christ Jesus, the challenge is to ‘glorify God with our bodies’, and surely the best way to ensure this happens is to come to the place where we consecrate ourselves over to his will, surrendering our all, uttering the words of this hymn with genuine meaning and ambition from our heart and lips, ‘Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee . . .’
I quote as I have been doing in other devotions from another hymn as well, which is along similar lines, ‘All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give, I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all; all to thee my blessed Saviour, I surrender all.
May we always allow Jesus to be the centre of who we are and what we do, may we willingly and gladly surrender our all to him for the glory and the honour of his name.
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee.