May 5 - Take My Life and Let It Be

Listen here.

Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hudson, OH. Thank you for being with me today.

On Saturdays we look at a hymn for our devotional meditation. This might be a helpful devotional habit because the hymns we sing are expressions of faith and often teach us important lessons. They are, in a sense, God’s Word rearranged and set to music. It is good for us to look closely at what we sing. There are beautiful and inspiring biblical messages contained in the hymns.  

The hymn we will look at today is Take My Life and Let It Be. (You can listen to it here.) In the Lutheran Service Book from Concordia Publishing House it is hymn number 783.

The Hymn:

One of the interesting things about this beautiful hymn is that it is, in the end, the combined work of a father and his daughter. The melody for the hymn in the linked video is known as Patmos, a reference to the island where the Apostle John was exiled. This is the melody that I grew up singing, but the hymn has been set to other tunes. Patmos was composed by the Rev. William Henry Havergal. It was his daughter, Frances Havergal, who wrote the lyrics. Frances Havergal was a prolific hymn writer. Of her, James Davidson writes, “Simply and sweetly she sang the love of God, and His way of salvation. To this end, and for this object, her whole life and all her powers were consecrated. She lives and speaks in every line of her poetry. Her poems are permeated with the fragrance of her passionate love of Jesus.”

Let’s take a look at the lyrics of this hymn.

1 Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

2 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.

3 Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only for my King;
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.

4 Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect and use
Ev'ry pow'r as Thou shalt choose.

5 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.

6 Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Notice the way that it takes different parts of our lives and brings them to God. We ask God to consecrate us – to make us holy for His service, set apart to serve His purpose. This holy life is, of course, deeply influenced by God’s love which then makes our earthly possession, which include our bodies, items given into the Lord’s service.

May we sing this hymn as people who have received the love of God in Christ, and, having received God’s love, let His love fill us and pour forth in love for Him and love for all whom God Himself loves.

Prayer:

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee. Amen.

Memory Verse:

This is he who came by water and blood-- Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. (1 Jn. 5:6 ESV)

 Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of the day.

One more thing: If you got something out of this devotional time, would you share it on social media or just tell someone about it? It stands to reason that if this blessed you, it will bless someone else.

Thanks again and God bless you!