A reminder that during our Lenten journey, Saturdays will be somewhat different as we sit with an instrumental version of a beloved hymn and take time to ponder the meaning of its lyrics. Only a brief word about the history of the hymn will serve as an introduction, and then after our Scripture reading you are invited to read the lyrics slowly and prayerfully while you listen to the instrumental rendition.
Words of Reflection
Over the past few days, as we’ve considered Christ’s call to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, we’ve really been talking about the act of consecration. To consecrate something is to set it apart from common use and dedicate it wholly to God. We seek to live consecrated lives as followers of Jesus.
Frances Ridley Havergal was born in 1836, the daughter of an Anglican writer and clergyman. From childhood she showed incredible aptitude and passion for God’s word—at age four she was already memorizing entire books of the Bible. She also was quite adept at foreign languages, studying several modern languages alongside Biblical Greek and Hebrew all before the age of 18. As she began exploring her own writing gifts, she penned religious tracts, children’s lessons, and poems. But what she became best known for were her musical gifts: both performing and writing beautiful hymns of praise and commitment.
In 1874 Frances was staying in a house where many of the guests were not followers of Christ. She prayed fervently for their conversion, and when God granted her prayers she was filled with inexpressible joy. She later wrote:
“The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in renewal of my consecration.”
As she sought a deeper level of surrender to Christ, she found herself composing verse as it came to her:
“Those little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another till they finished with ‘ever only, ALL FOR THEE!’”
“Take My Heart and Let it Be” is the result of that communion with God in response to his saving grace.
Shortly before her death, Fraves Havergal wrote a devotional to go alongside some of the hymns she had written over her lifetime. As she reflected on “Take My Life,” she said this about consecration, and these good words are a wonderful place to sit for a while:
Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that, it ceases to be consecration…Not for ‘me’ at all but ‘for Jesus’; not for my safety, but for His glory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, but that He may see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied! Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have;—little enough, indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other claim. Is not this, O you who love the Lord—is not this worth living for, worth asking for, worth trusting for?
Scripture for Meditation:
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
—John 12:24-26 (NRSV)
Song: Take My Life and Let It Be
Time of Contemplation:
Read through the lyrics of this hymn slowly and prayerfully. Read them more than once, and pay attention to the movement of your soul as you pray. What words or phrases grab your attention? Why? As you finish, sit in prayerful silence before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you something of your need and God’s provision that emerges from these words.
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in endless praise,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
Ever, only, all for thee.
Frances Ridley Havergal
Public Domain