The hymn is deeply convicting to the believer, describing the breadth and depth to which their life should be given to the Lord. The hymn writer begins by declaring, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee”. The theme of consecration is central, pointing to the believer being set apart for God and His purposes. Frances lifts up a life willingly surrendered to God, not merely in sentiment, but in every area of its practical outworking. This understanding is deeply rooted in Scripture, with Paul exhorting in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Consecration is an act of offering ourselves to God because we recognise that we belong to Him; the Corinthian believers are reminded, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20). The hymn follows this biblical pattern by offering to God our time, hands, feet, voice, possessions, intellect, will and love. Nothing is excluded. Frances takes the broad prayer, "take my life", and works it out in the ordinary details of daily living. This is the practical outworking of surrender: allowing every part of our lives to come under the Lordship of Christ. The Lord Jesus calls His followers to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Consecration is therefore not simply a moment of dedication, but the continuing response of a believer who says, in the words of the hymn, “Take my life and I will be ever, only, all, for Thee.”
As I have reflected on this hymn, I’ve been confronted with the question of whether there is an area of my life, or a part of my body, that I am holding back from God. Romans 12:1 describes presenting my body in this way as my “reasonable service”, where other translations render this phrase as “your spiritual worship”. To consecrate myself to the Lord is therefore an act of worship: the offering of a life that seeks to be obedient to Him. It is the giving of what already belongs to Him as created by Him (Psalm 24:1), and as purchased by Him (1 Corinthians 6:19,20).
I was further challenged by this truth during a recent Bible Teaching Conference where the speaker asserted that there is nothing that God cannot lay claim to. We were pointed to and compared with ordinary men who were fitted and prepared for the priesthood in Exodus 29 – consecrated for the purpose of worship – and the question was posed: “is it all on the altar for Him?” Frances Ridley Havergal surely had similar themes in her mind as this hymn was penned.
A close friend of mine used to often challenge herself and me about how we “hold” things. If she sensed one of us coveting something or trying to engineer the outcome of a situation instead of handing it over to God, she would simply hold up a flat, upturned hand before clenching it in a fist and unclenching to leave the hand flat and upturned once again – usually repeating this several times. A simple gesture that stays with me today, she was reflecting on how we can often grip things too tightly instead of holding them up before the Lord to use.
We are graciously given our possessions, bodies, personalities, and circumstances by a sovereign and loving God. However, there is a danger that we receive something from Him with an open hand, but over time begin to close our fingers around it. A gift can quietly become an entitlement. A responsibility can become something we feel we must control. A desire can become something we believe we cannot be happy without. The issue is not necessarily the thing itself, but our posture towards it. The love of money, for example, is the issue Scripture highlights rather than money itself – it’s the gripping of the item in a clenched fist that causes problems (1 Timothy 6:10).
Scripture repeatedly reminds us that the good gifts we have are received from God, not self-produced (James 1:17; 1 Corinthians 4:7). Consecration invites us to recognise that distinction, to surrender our lives in their entirety to God. We can treasure what He has entrusted to us without clinging to it as though it were ours to secure or control at all costs. When we instead grasp and clench, we are using our own strength and our own devices, something which the Word of God explicitly warns against (Proverbs 3:5,6; Jeremiah 17:5-8). We need not rely on our own strength to “hold” things in place, and can instead trust in God to do so. We have a Saviour and Lord in whom “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).
Perhaps we grip things tightly because we are afraid that if we let go, everything will fall apart. Perhaps, if we are honest, we grip because we want control. But the clenched fist is a poor substitute for the sovereign hand of God. Our grip and our strength are limited; He is the everlasting God who never grows weary (Isaiah 40:28-31). Where we only see what is immediately before us, He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9,10).
To open our hands, then, is to acknowledge that He is God and we are not; that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8,9), and that we can therefore trust in His wisdom and faithfulness. We can release our grip because the Person into whose hands we entrust these things is not careless or distant; He is close to us, and is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). Without His direction and power, our actions and deeds are completed in vain (Psalm 127:1; John 15:5), and so we should cry out in surrender with Frances Ridley Havergal to God’s sovereignty over all we have and are.
I challenge myself about what it is that I grip tightly in my fist, and encourage you to do the same. Perhaps there’s a seventh verse of “Take My Life and Let It Be” to be penned with what you need to lift up before the Lord, on a flat upturned hand, asking Him to take and use it for His will and purposes.
