Tag: Here am I

Here Am I: Take My Moments & My Days (#2)

Often when I’m studying God’s Word, a song comes to my heart to sing.  Lately it’s been an old favorite that I first heard in college:  “Take My Life” by Chris Tomlin.

Each line compels me to a deeper level of holiness.  It draws me into dying to myself, giving ALL of myself to the Lord.  This is the second post in a series from the song that focuses on each line.

This week I’m talking about these two lines:

Take my moments and my days.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

More than any other line of the song, this is the one that I pray most often.  As a busy mom of toddlers, it is easy to let my moments get away from me. It is easy to chase my boys around, and get frazzled about messes, and be distracted by all there is to do in our home.

Sometimes I end the day wondering where the time went. I look around the house and see messes, and can barely tell that I did any housework at all.  The moments of the day seem to have slipped away from me as I was more focused on messes and obligations than I was on the Lord.

Here am I

But often, I sing this song to the Lord. I pray to him, “Take my moments. Let them flow in ceaseless praise to you, my Lord.”

And when I start my day in this frame of mind, I spend my day well. I may still have moments that are focused on the mess, but I have more moments that are focused on my Savior. More moments that are focused on pleasing Him.  More moments that are focused on loving my children, showing them grace, and teaching them His Truth.  More moments that are focused on honoring and respecting my husband.  More moments that truly flow in praise to my Lord.

These moments build to form my days.  These days build to form weeks. The weeks turn into months, and the months turn into years. Moments of praise turn into a lifetime spent for the glory of the Lord.  It starts today.  Right now.  In this moment.  Praising the God who created each moment that I’m alive.

He truly deserves ALL the glory, ALL the honor, and ALL the praise.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

-‭‭Psalm ‭100

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Rachel  🙂

Here Am I: Take My Life (#1)

Often when I’m studying God’s Word, a song comes to my heart to sing.  Lately it’s been an old favorite that I first heard in college:  “Take My Life” by Chris Tomlin.

Each line compels me to a deeper level of holiness.  It draws me into dying to myself, giving ALL of myself to the Lord.  I’m going to do a series from the song, focusing on each line, and what the Scriptures say about it.

This week I’m starting with the first line:

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

Take.  My Life.

Here am I

We are singing this song to the Lord, asking Him to “take” our lives.  We are offering to Him our very living.

This is what salvation is.  It isn’t simply “asking Jesus into your heart”, or “accepting Him as your Savior.”  Those things happen at salvation, but becoming a Christian isn’t just about “being saved.”  It’s about dying to yourself, GIVING your very life over to the Lord.

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  God loves me.  Jesus gave His very life for me, and in return–He asks for my life, too.  The life that I live today, though in the flesh, is not even supposed to be “me” living.  It is to be CHRIST living inside of me!

Is that how I’m living?  Am I living, as ME, myself, living MY own life?  Or is Christ living in my body?  Is the Holy Spirit in control of my actions and my thoughts?  Am I living, or is Christ?

Romans 12:1 says to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”  According to Scripture, it is reasonable that I should sacrifice my entire life for God.  It is reasonable that I should not keep anything for myself, but should present my very existence to God as a holy sacrifice.

So many times when I feel convicted to give up something for the Lord, my first instinct is to think that having to give that up is simply unreasonable.  “Why would God expect me to give that up?  It’s not sinful.”   Yes, sometimes God even asks me to give up things that are not sinful in and of themselves.  Things that I consider perfectly fine.  Things that I think I should be able to enjoy.  But the Holy Spirit pricks my heart and says, “Let it go.”

If I am a living sacrifice, that means that nothing is off limits.  It is completely reasonable for God to ask me to give up everything I own and everything I enjoy.  It is completely reasonable.

The thing is, I don’t want God to have to always be making me give things up to Him.  I want to be a living sacrifice every day, no matter what.  I want to wake up and say to the Lord, “Take my life.”  I want to offer myself, everything I own, everything I do, and everything I think to the Lord as a sacrifice.

And when I give Him my life, I want Him to consecrate it to Himself.  The definition of “consecrate” is to “make or declare something sacred.”

Sacred?  MY LIFE?

The answer is yes.  In and of myself, my life will never be sacred.  But when I offer myself to Christ as a living sacrifice, and when it isn’t actually ME–but Christ–living my life, then it can become sacred.  And so today, and every day, I want to offer up my life to the Lord so that it can be consecrated to Him.  So that my life can be sacred.  So that my life will no longer be mine–but fully belong to God Himself.

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

This is my prayer.  Is it yours?

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Rachel  🙂