Ephesians
singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord;”
The Music
of “LIFE” Series: Take Time to be Holy
The hymn writer, William Longstaff, penned these words about 1882. The story goes that William
heard a sermon based on the text, I Peter
inspired him to write these words.
Hebrews 12:14 tells us, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord;”
Let’s approach Longstaff’s hymn from the directive suggestions of what actions we might take to follow God’s command to “be holy”.
I.
Take time to be holy, Speak
oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children; Help those who are weak;
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.
“Take time”…this is an action that means purposing to make and keep an appointment with the Lord on a daily, and often through a day, basis. We generally make and take time for the things that are important to us don’t we? And if we were to take account of those things we do, we would have to ask ourselves if our choices will have an eternal value or burn up as “wood, hay and stubble”. The gift of ‘24 hours’ has to be given to the Lord and count for holiness.
As the first verse continues,
Longstaff gives us some simple examples of
how we can make our time count for holiness. “Speak oft with thy Lord” he writes.
This speaks to us of prayer.
-Proverbs 15:8b says, “…the prayer of the upright is
His delight.”
Throughout
Scripture we read about giving ourselves to prayer –
I Corinthians 7:5;
-Of how our requests should be made by prayer – Philippians 4:6;
-Of how the ‘effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man’ are effective:
they “avail much” – James
-Paul tells us to ‘pray without ceasing’, I Thess.
To speaking “oft with thy Lord”, Longstaff writes to “Abide in Him always and feed on His Word”.
Abiding and feeding are two words that have a definite impact on us as believers. Notice the hymn writer doesn’t say abiding WITH Him but IN Him. Abiding “in Him” is giving Him the control of what we do, what we say, what we think. And, He is holy…thus, our thoughts as we abide IN Him, will also be holy.
Feeding
on His Word will give us His wisdom and also the sensitivity to hear Him and
respond to the Holy Spirit. The
abiding and the feeding go hand in hand…but as he has already said, it takes
time and we must make the time if we are going to be holy as He is holy. Verse 2 confirms this. He also adds that in following and
obeying the Lord in these ways, others will take note of the indwelling Jesus
in us.
II.
Take time to be holy, the
world rushes on;
Much time spend in secret with Jesus
alone;
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt
be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
It’s so much easier to take time with the Lord and follow Him when
we are in the valleys of our lives.
Those times when our plate gets heavy and our souls seem to have all
they can do to just get through the day.
We run to the Lord and lay hold on Him because we know He is the only
One that has the Words of life and the only One that has the answers we need.
However,
it is also true that in these valley experiences we may struggle to trust
in the Lord and His Word IF we cloud up our communion with Him
by not trusting Him and not obeying His direction. We may not like what we hear from the
Lord concerning what He says we should do.
The hymn writer encourages us to “Let Him
be our guide…no matter what!
Our response to the Lord should be always the same, whether we view
our times as good times or not so good…we are to follow His leading and trust
in His Word. It would be prudent
to keep a journal of those times the Lord has answered you during those valley
days…and recount your notations from time to time, that you might not forget
the goodness of the Lord, nor His faithfulness.
Verse 3 emphasizes that regardless of what our times may be we are
still to look “to Jesus”.
III.
3. Take
time to be holy, Let
Him be thy guide,
And run not before
Him whatever betide;
In joy or in
sorrow still follow thy Lord,
And, looking
to Jesus, still trust in His Word.
Verse 4 continues to encourage us to “take time to be holy” and to
“be calm in our soul” by
assuring that our “thoughts and motives” are under
the Lord’s control. We are captive
to Jesus’ ways in every way and in all things. As captives of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are led by His Spirit to those places where Jesus would have us to be in
our daily lives; we continue to be conformed to the image of Jesus, the Son…which
prepares us for being with the Holy One where He is, eternally.
IV.
4. Take
time to be holy, be
calm in thy soul;
Each thought
and each motive beneath His control;
Thus led
by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt
be fitted for service above.
To Recap:
To be holy as He is Holy we need to take time with the Lord, to abide
in Him, to feed on His Word, to spend much time in secret with Him alone,
to allow Jesus to be our Guide through good times and not so good times, but
always trusting His word regardless of the times.
Allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us as He guides us through
the paths that are conforming us to Jesus’ image and fitting us for Heaven.
To obey God’s Word in these practical areas of our lives will make
the “music of our lives” soar of His standard of Holiness; our ‘song’ will
be sweet.
Prepared by Mercedes S. Whelan
for