The words that come now are so beautiful, both in their meaning, and in the gift God gave Frances to put words together in a beautiful way
“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.”
God has laid heavily on my heart this January, the need to disciple others. It is in the messages He has always given me to give others, the need to instruct others in the way to follow God. This has been my problem with many churches, the failure to disciple people and resistance to those who seek to disciple them. For me these verses are a call to be a willing disciple to God. It is not possible to disciple others if you are not first a willing disciple of Jesus.
In the previous blog we discussed Deuteronomy 6:5, which is reiterated by Jesus in Matthew 22:37. That is, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.
This is the core of our relationship with God. We need to desire to do God’s will (Psalm 40:8), ask Him to teach us to do His will (Psalm 143:10) and accept that will, even when it doesn’t go our desired way (Isaiah 53:10, Matthew 26:39). The last verse quoted is in the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus prays for strength to carry out God’s will. He desires not to have to go through what He must, but accepts that it is God’s will, not His that is important and that He wants to do.
Jesus’ words are the important point here. It is our willingness that is important (2 Corinthians 8:11,12). God wants us to be willing and eager to serve (1 Peter 5:2). We must be willing to give up our lives rather than oppose God’s will or reject Him (Daniel 3:28). He wants our motives to be right, the desire to serve God and accept His will (1 Chronicles 28:9). Just as Jesus modelled in the garden of Gethsemane, we can ask God for a willing spirit and He will give it (Psalm 51:12).
Our willingness to give our hearts to God and His will. We are to seek God with all our hearts and souls (Deuteronomy 4:29). When we seek Him, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). Again, we can ask God for help (Psalm 51:10). We are to treat our commitment to God as we would if we were a slave obeying our Master to honour God, as Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6:6. We are to consecrate ourselves to God by the circumcision of the Heart, a choice we must make (Romans 2:29). In Deuteronomy 10:16 we are exhorted to circumcise our hearts as a mark of loyalty and obedience to God. We are to willingly place ourselves under the rule of God as our King and consecrate self and all we possess to God.
In this world of individualism the concept of submission to a King is something that is hard for us to comprehend, so I looked up one of my concordances (Matthew Henry). This is how he describes Deuteronomy 10:12-22:
We are to fear God, adore His majesty, acknowledge His authority over our lives, stand in awe of His power and dread His wrath. We are to Love Him as our Good God, Father and Benefactor. We are to desire Him, delight in contemplation of Him and seek to be in communion with Him. We are to walk in the ways He appoints for us and serve Him with all our heart and soul. We are to devote ourselves to His honour and put ourselves willingly under His government, being hearty and zealous in service. We are to desire the advance of His Kingdom and seek to keep His commandments and statutes. We are to be obedient and accept His will, even when it seems hard and unjust. We are to cast away everything that hinders us from fearing and loving God. Finally, we are to not be stubborn and obstinate (stiff necked). That is hard to do and I can think of no other way to do it than to ask God for help and to choose to always accept what happens in life and ask Him to give me the willingness. May it be so for you also.
 

“Take my silver and my gold” is the first line of the fourth verse. It continues with the declaration that “not a mite would I withhold” and then makes the same offer with “take my intellect and use every power as you shall choose”.
This verse is about the cost of discipleship and what we are required to do to be disciples of Jesus. In Luke 14:27 Jesus tells us the disciple must “carry his cross”. Verse 33 is more specific, we must give up everything we have to be Jesus’ disciple.
One of the obvious things to give up is our money and possessions, but this verse is not about tithing or giving money, it is about giving everything to follow Jesus. There is the love of money and material things. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus tells His disciples they cannot serve both God and money. They will love one and hate the other, it is not possible to love both. 1 Timothy 6:10 expands on that statement by describing the love of money as the root of all evil that will cause the lover of money to wander from faith. 1 Peter 5:2 reminds us not to be greedy for money but instead to serve God as the shepherds of His flock. It is not wrong to have money and possessions, but it is wrong to hold on to them and not use them freely as God directs.
Running through the Bible from Deuteronomy 6:5 and reiterated by Jesus in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 is the statement that we are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” Luke adds the word strength in here too. Giving up everything for Jesus does not just involve our possessions, it also involves our minds.
God gives us intelligence and abilities. These are for His service and the disciple will willingly offer them up for service to God. In Genesis 41 we see a perfect example of God giving Joseph intelligence and the ability to administer and manage. He used that ability to gain favour with Pharaoh and build up great wealth and food stocks for Egypt. He opened the door for his family to live in Egypt, from where they would emerge as a mighty nation.
I Chronicles 28:9 contains David’s instruction to his son Solomon to serve God with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. That is something we all need to do. Not only do we make our possessions available, but also our intellect.
Remember the path of the disciple is not an easy one. In Matthew 7:14 Jesus tells us the path of discipleship is to enter through the small gate and follow on the narrow road that leads to life. He tells us that few will find that gate and follow on that path.
If your desire is to be a disciple then these words carry great importance and meaning:

“Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withhold
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.”

May that be the prayer of your heart.
 

Today I am looking at the third verse. As someone who loves to sing, has studied music and has been a first soprano in many choirs, this verse really strikes a chord with me (no pun intended). I realised many years ago that I sing most beautifully when I am singing praise to God and I believe that is why God gave me a nice voice. Frances Ridley Havergal had an exceptionally beautiful voice and was in demand as a performer. Yet she also loved to sing praise to God. The first two lines of this verse is about her consecrating her voice to God and it is something that those of us who love to sing need to bear in mind as well. Our voices are most beautiful when used in praise to God.
The Bible is full of references to our voices being used to praise God. Psalm 19:4 speaks of the heavens and sky declaring God’s glory. Proverbs 8:1 speaks of the voice of wisdom and understanding. Isaiah 40:3 and Mark 1:3 speak of messengers being sent to proclaim God and His actions. In Romans 10:18 voices are used to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. In Exodus 15:1, Psalms 5:11, 13:6, 47:6, 89:1 and 95:1 we sing praise to God because of who He is. We also make music to Him (Psalm 95:1). We are called in 1 Corinthians 14:15 and Ephesians 5:19 to sing, not only with our voices but with our minds and spirit. When we sing the words of a praise song, it is about our heart attitude, not just the joy of singing an uplifting song. Sing those words, be aware of them as you sing them and mean them!
Finally in Revelation 5:13 we read that every creature in heaven and on earth will sing in praise to God.
Of course we use our voices for more than singing. This is reflected in the second half of the verse. When we speak (with our lips) our words should be filled with messages of God.
Again the Bible is full of references of praise being on our lips, bringing glory to God and defeating those who oppose God (Psalms 8:2, 63:3, 119:171). Our lips should speak forth a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess God’s name (Hebrews 13:15). Why a sacrifice? Because our lips can just as readily speak evil, poison, lies, curses, malice, slander, anger, filthy words and deceit (Psalms 34:13, 141:3, Proverbs 12:22, James 3:8, Colossians 3:81, Peter 3:10). We have to make a choice to speak messages from God, not hatred and evil.
So chose to consecrate your voice always, but particularly in songs of praise, to God and stop before speaking, to ensure you lips speak God’s glory, not evil.
 

Having spent the past blogs looking at verse one, I am looking at verse 2 today.
“Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of your love.”
So what does that look like?
God made everything, including us. He has authority over all things and we know we can depend on Him (Isaiah 48:13). God is the potter who moulded us, the clay, with His hands. (Isaiah 64:8). We work (put our hands to work) because God has blessed us with that work (Deuteronomy 12:7). God favours all that we do (Ecclesiastes 9:7) so we must do what we do with all our might (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Our ambition in life should be to lead a quiet life of work with our hands (1 Thessalonians 4:11). We use our hands to feel what is real, just as Thomas felt the hole in Jesus’ side so that he might believe (John 20:27). Our hands are part of our body, the part we use to manipulate objects. Our entire body, including our hands, is there to serve God (1 Corinthians 12:15). We should desire to have clean hands that have served only God and a pure heart and we should lift our hands in praise to God (Psalm 24:4). The hands we lift in prayer are holy hands, consecrated to God, so we must do so without anger or dispute (1 Timothy 2:8). We should never pray to God out of anger. We also lift our hands to God to confess sin and ask for His mercy (Lamentations 3:41). These are all aspects of moving our hands at the impulse of God’s love.
“Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for you.”
In Old Testament times, messengers were sent out from battlefields to bring the good news of victories to those back home. The swift messenger could bring good news much faster. Certainly the bearer of good news is beautiful because of the content of the message they bring.
In Psalm 119:105 we read that God’s word is a lamp to our feet. We go out into the world, serving God, and being guided by the Word (Jesus). We also have the words of the Bible, revealed by the Holy Spirit to guide us. Isaiah 52:7, Nahum 1:15 and Romans 10:15 all speak of how beautiful the feet of those who bring good news, proclaim peace, bring good tidings, proclaim salvation and that our God reigns, are. Romans adds to that by stating that those feet bring the message of release from captivity to sin. The messenger who brings the Good News of Jesus Christ is indeed beautiful. Nothing in life is more beautiful than what Jesus has done for us. In Ephesians 6:15 this act of service with our feet is part of the armour of God. We are to equip ourselves with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. This allows us to face our enemies with firm footed stability, promptness and readiness. The peace Jesus bring to us is there to be the driving force of our lives, to witness to others both in the way we conduct ourselves and our behaviour to others. That peace gives us a readiness or swiftness to respond when called upon.
What a wonderful gift to desire! Hands that move at the impulse of Jesus’ love and feet that are swift and willing to share the good news of Jesus. In these few lines Frances has turned our mundane, essential and practical hands and feet into things of inestimable beauty.