Am I fully yielded to God?

Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God. - Romans 6:13 (Amplified Bible)

Have I fully yielded ALL to God?

My father was a worship leader at the church we attended for many years. As a teacher, he would seek to engage people in the hymns they were singing by sharing the back story of the author and the life events that inspired the writing of the hymn. The old hymns are loaded with such solid theology. I am sincerely grateful to have had a role model in my father, that lived out these truths on a daily basis and fully yielded to God in all that he did. The way he lived on Monday through Saturday was no different than the way he lived on Sunday.

Is the way I live on Monday through Saturday the same as Sunday?

The following is an example of a hymn story copied from a blog of Tim Challies:

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) was an unusually gifted and passionate saint. The daughter of a church rector, she was raised in Worcester, England, and attended schools in England and Germany. In her love of learning, she grew to become an able scholar (even becoming proficient in both Hebrew and Greek) and a talented singer and pianist.

The deepest desire of her heart, however, was in "personal spiritual influence upon others" (Benson). This led her to value most of all her ability to write; for that reason, she expended the majority of her life's labors in writing prose and poetry that would be spiritually beneficial to the saints.

Havergal suffered poor health and was taken by the Lord at just 42 years of age. But the Lord prospered her ministry; her writings had a large impact in her own day, and several continue to be read and sung today.

The story of "Take My Life" gives a good picture of the kind of passion and joy she had in ministering to others. She once recounted the story behind it:

Perhaps you will be interested to know the origin of the consecration hymn, "Take my life." I went for a little visit of five days. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, "Lord, give me all in this house!" And He just did! Before I left the house, everyone had got a blessing. The last night of my visit, I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another till they finished with, "Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!"

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

Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
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.

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.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet is its treasure store.
Take me, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee. - Francis Havergal

I would guess that when Francis Havergal penned the words to "Take My Life" back in the late 1800's in response to her faithfulness with 10 people in a house, she had no idea that God would use those words to impact the lives of 10's of thousands around the world over the next 150 years. The same God that multiplied the lunch of a small boy willing to share all that he had to feed 5000, and the words of a church rector's daughter to impact 10's of thousands, can use you, when fully yielded to Him, to impact others long after you are gone.

Am I executing each day with an eternal perspective and fully yielded to His will?

Be Encouraged to live "Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!"

-Jeffrey Thornton