Day #154 - Consecrated
The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder
“Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Romans 6:13-14 NIV
Do you have a favorite old song?
My parents have a song that is one of their favorites because it was the song that was sung at their wedding. It is beautiful hymn and part of what makes it beautiful is that it is a heartfelt prayer unto God for consecration. The song is called “Take my Life” from the 1800s by Frances R. Havergal. I love this song too because I’ve seen this song lived out as a prayer throughout my parents’ lives. Here are the first two verses:
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise, let them flow in endless 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, swift and beautiful for thee.
Paul is writing in Roman 6 about the power of being identified with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus through baptism. He is teaching about the power of sin being defeated in the life of the believer and the victory of the new life we have in Him. Sin no longer has mastery over the believer if we believe in what Christ has done by the grace of God and consecrate ourselves unto the Lord.
To consecrate something means to set it apart for a special purpose. God is speaking to us in Romans 6 about consecration. To be a person of “the Presence” is to set apart your life for God’s glory. We do this by quitting the presentation of ourselves to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather we offer ourselves to God as those who are brought from death to life. We do this by offering every part of our lives to God as instruments of righteousness. Paul goes on to say that sin shall no longer be our master because we are not under the law but under grace.
This is incredible news to be under grace, but we also see that while our access to God’s presence is by grace, grace puts a demand on us to present ourselves to God instead of sin and wickedness. Many have pitted a consecrated life against grace. This is a false dichotomy. We only have life in God by grace, but grace calls us to lay our whole lives down before the Lord. Dallas Willard is known for saying, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.” How true it is for those of “the Presence” who know they are only before the Lord by grace, but by grace respond in consecrating our lives unto God, giving Him everything in surrender.
Oh great and awesome God, I love You! Thank you for Your grace in my life! I present myself to You as one is who alive from the dead. My life of sin has died and I am made new through Your resurrection power. I present every part of myself as an instrument of righteousness for Your glory. I consecrate my life. I no longer present myself to sin for wickedness. I am under Your grace. In Jesus name, amen.
So memorably put: “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.” Jesus has freely given us everything; we can't earn a thing. But God loves our efforts for love and the Kingdom. Amen!
God’s grace is throughout the Bible. This Proverb 3:35 tells us we need to be humble to receive it. “Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.” NKJV As Pastor John so clearly wrote, we need to humble ourselves by realizing we can’t do anything good on our own. Rather we need to repeatedly offer ourselves to God. Then He gives more grace.