Take My Life and Let it Be

If you haven't watched the video yet then you should...

The tune is a new one but the words are old. They were written by Frances Havergal on February 4th, 1874. Frances was the daughter of a vicar and lived in Worcestershire. She loved to write poems and the poems that she wrote were often printed on leaflets or printed onto cards. She was 37 years old when she went to visit Areley House with 10 other people. Some where Christians and some weren't saved at all. She prayed that God would speak to all of them and He did. She went to bed praising God and thanking him for using her to reach these 10 people and just thought of the lines.

I find the words very challenging. That's if you really mean them. I know that you can sit in church and sing along with the hymns and not mean any of it at all.

"Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee." - most people want to keep their life. They want to live it for themselves, fulfil their own desires, come up with their own plans and dream that they will come true. To consecrate your life is to declare it sacred - for God's use alone. I suppose being a Christian is gradually letting that happen but there are so many things that we desperately hold onto.

"Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise." - Easy to praise God when things are going well and you feeling great. Difficult to praise when you are feeling down and things are going wrong. As Christians I think we need to learn to praise God when we don't feel like it... to give Him thanks for who He is, not because everything is going great. We are always going to have trials and they are going to hurt. But knowing, really knowing that God loves us means that somehow we can still praise Him.

"Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love." - Sometimes doing something to help someone else is easy and we are willing to help. Other times it costs. We need to come to the point where we reach out to help out of impulse...like a reflex that we can't control. Not something that we should think about or consider the cost of, but something we just do. Sometimes hands that do that get hurt - once they got nailed to a cross.

"Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee." - Makes me think of the shoes of the gospel of peace... not slow in going to make peace, to apologise, to make things right. Feet that bring good news like a messenger running to tell those who are suffering that they are in danger no more.

"Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King." - There are songs filled with hate, swearing and violence. Songs that are lies and blasphemy. Is it good for us to even listen to them? How different would the world be if every song was sung for God - not necessarily about God but honouring Him and his creation.

"Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee." - Too many things that we say hurt people rather than help them. So many things are said out of anger or frustration and once they are said then they can't be taken back.

"Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withold." - But we do withold it. A mite is like a penny... a tiny amount. Yet we are always witholding our money. Christians make excuses for not giving their tithes and offerings. We tell God that we need that money - we can't live without it. However much we have, somehow it's just not enough and it can have a hold over you. If God asked you tonight to give as much as you could, how much would you give and how much would you withold? Our money is where our security is - giving it away means giving up that security and having more trust. It's not that God wants us to be penniless, it's that He doesn't want the security of the money we have to be what we rely on, or the money that we don't have to be something that we seek after more than Him.

"Take my intellect and use every power as Thou shalt choose." - And I thought I could keep my intellect for myself! God has to have everything - all that I have to give, even that.

"Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine." - How do people stand in church and sing that? Do they turn their brains off? Did they realise what they just said! Imagine a world where every born-again Christian gives their will totally to God... says to Him "I'll do whatever you want, Lord." Our will is at the very centre of who we are and submitting it is a struggle. It doesn't want to let us! God has to work on us every day, from the inside out, to gradually wear down our wills because they are so strong. That's not to say that if we did give God our wills we would have an awful life - on the contrary we would have a fantastic life... but that will does not want to die!

"Take my heart - it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne." - We have to have a heart transplant! The sinful human heart can't love in the way God wants us to. He has to transplant a different heart to replace the heart of stone that we were born with. Then it can be God's royal throne... the place where he is Lord and the place where He has to become Lord first before we can surrender anything else.

"Take my love: my Lord I pour at Thy feet its treasure-store." - And once He is Lord in our hearts then there is treasure to be poured out. The treasure of worship, humility, sacrifice, thinking of others more than ourselves.

"Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee." - One day... yes one day everything will be surrendered...my moments, days, hands, feet, voice, words, silver, gold, intellect, will, heart, love. It takes time - some things may be given up easily and some may take a lifetime. But I do belong to Him and I want to learn how to surrender more and I know He will teach me.