Take Time to Be Holy

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 to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

 

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;

And run not before Him, whatever betide.

In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,

And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

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.

~William D. Longstaff~

When I read or sing this song, my soul is challenged. It encourages me to take time with my Lord. In a busy world, with busy schedules, we often forget to take time only with Him. We also can easily forget to pray. A quote that Amy Carmichael wrote comes to mind about prayer:

“We have one crystal clear reason apart from the blessed happiness of this way of life. It is this: prayer is the core of our day. Take prayer out, and the day would collapse, would be pithless, a straw blown in the wind. But how can you pray – really pray, I mean – with one against whom you have a grudge or whom you have been discussing critically with another? Try it. You will find it cannot be done.” (Amy Carmichael, Roots, p.55)

Always be in prayer, just as it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.” It is such a blessing to be in prayer with the Father. To talk with Him, and to not only have us requesting from Him, but to also hear His voice. That is what I truly love. When I hear His voice, correcting me, convicting me, and even just telling me how much HE loves me, is truly a blessing. Living on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, is the way He desires us to live.

Another encouragement from this song is this, abiding in Him and feeding on His Word. (the word again His Word the Bible and listening to what the Father has to say) In the gospel of John, Jesus speaks about abiding in Him, which, in other words is living IN Him.

“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” (1John4:16-17 Italics added)

What the Father has revealed to me is this, if I love, He lives in me, and I in Him. To truly abide in love, I must walk in love, and His light. Also, I must know what true love is. Love is the opposite of selfishness. Love puts selfishness out of the window. When we deny our own will, and take up our crosses, we will be following our master from the Love He has poured out within us.

The song adds, ‘Make friends with God’s children, help those who are weak’ here again, the only way to do this is to have God’s love in our hearts. If we did not have His love, we could not do these things. It says in 1 Corinthians 13 that even if we had so many things, but had not love we would have/amount to nothing.

It is indeed true, the world rushes on, and we need to take a lot of time in secret with Jesus alone. Even if the Father brings it to mind to pray at work, we can speak to Him alone if there is time. We must take time to speak with Him, spend time in His word and perhaps books and messages that draw us ever nearer to the Lord. Something comes to mind that Lenard Ravenhill said, “The hardest thing to suffer is to be alone, but that is how God makes saints. We cannot have fellowship with one another, unless we love being alone with our Father.  "Fellowship" will then, be truly found.”

I love the verse, “Run not before Him, let Him be thy guide.” If we run before Him, we will be doing our own thing. Instead, let us remain behind Him, patiently waiting on Him to show us where He wants us to go.

Sometimes we look ahead and wonder what the future will bring. We then start to worry and become anxious. I often wonder how come we are so easy to forget. God wants to show us His power in our weakness. If we let Him, He will show us the way to go, just ask Him and wait patiently for His answer.

Lastly, the very last verse is music to my ears, “Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.” We must keep on taking time with Him, loving Him, serving Him and surrendering our will to Him. He will conform us into His image.

He is truly wonderful, is He not? He IS. That is why we owe Him our everything.