Take Time to Be Holy

My daily routine includes a time of devotions and prayer in the mornings. Though any time is a good time to spend with God, the Scriptures appear to indicate that the morning is a good time to set time apart and spend time with God and with His Word. In Psalms 5 and 143, David states, "In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly." (Psalm 5:3); and "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life." (Psalm 143:8). We even see our Saviour going out in the early morning to have a quiet time of prayer by Himself in Mark 1:35; "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."

I have been doing morning devotions for as long as I can remember, though I know that I have not always done them. I can state with certainty that they became especially important to me around 2002 when I started a particularly stressful job. I had taken over the position from somebody who had departed because of a failure on their part to keep up with the demands, and I came into the job three months behind the eight ball and facing a wave of angry clients to appease. The stress almost drove me out of the position, but I eventually found that by dedicating real, intentional and unrushed time to God in the mornings helped me to deal with the daily stresses and pressures of the job. In the end, that turned out to be one of my favourite jobs.

Before I dive into my daily devotions, I take the time to sing an old hymn in order to get my heart settled and focused on God. To support this, I got ahold of an old hymnal, probably from a thrift store. I went through it and noted every hymn that I knew from my childhood for which I could remember the tune, and I use that list to work my way through the hymnal over and over again. It sometimes surprises me, though it probably shouldn't, how often the hymn that is on my list for any given day speaks directly to something that I am dealing with.

This morning, the hymn that was next on the list was "Take Time to Be Holy". The message of this hymn is timeless, as you will find with most hymns. This is probably why hymns have stood the test of time. The words of this hymn were written by William D. Longstaff, who lived from 1822 - 1894, and the musical score was composed by George C. Stebbins who lived from 1846 - 1945. This hymn is stated to have been completed in 1882.

I want to take the time today to go through the hymn, verse by verse, and lay out the truths of what was written almost 150 years ago. The overarching theme of this hymn is to remind us that we should set aside a time to seek after holiness, and through it's verses, this hymn teaches us what that looks like.

 1 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.

Longstaff is encouraging us to be intentional about seeking after holiness, to carve out time for it. Holiness comes about through closeness with God, and closeness with God comes about through regular conversations with Him, which means two way communication. We see this same dynamic in our personal relationships with others. When we talk often with people that we care about, the relationship is maintained and built up; when we fail to maintain communication, the relationship can grow weak and stagnant. This does not necessarily mean that there is a rift in the relationship, but the familiarity is gone. Longstaff is encouraging us to speak with God often in order to maintain that familiarity.

Abiding in God means that we stay with Him. We don't pursue our own goals if they diverge from His goals. It means that we submit to Him in our thoughts and in our actions. Part of abiding with God is to "feed on His word". Feeding is an intentional act. When we feed, we prepare that which is intended to nourish us and set time apart to consume it; it is not mindless snacking which contributes nothing to meeting our daily needs. The Bible is the written (Greek - logos) Word of God, and it acts as our operator's manual for this life, and when we consume it regularly and intentionally, we are lead and nourished. When we hear from God in our prayers, that is His spoken (Greek - rhema) Word to us specifically, and His spoken Word is as important and carries as much weight as His written Word, as long as they are both in alignment. His spoken Word will never contradict His written Word. If this concept is new to you, then you must be pretty new to my writings, because I regularly talk about speaking to and hearing from God, and I encourage you to read through any number of my previous articles to figure out what I'm talking about, but you should especially follow the hyperlink in the previous paragraph which addresses the topic directly.

We are also called upon to befriend other Believers and help those who are facing difficulty. Their weakness that Longstaff is referring to here could be spiritual, emotional, mental or physical, and it could also include meeting their physical needs by offering help with a problem with their car, their home or any other struggles that they may be facing. Your contribution could be financial or the giving of your own time, skills and knowledge. In all of these things, as well as in the facets of our daily lives, Longstaff reminds us to seek God's blessing in everything that we do. If we do not sense God's blessing on our plans or actions, we need to be sensitive to this and seriously consider if we are doing something that God wants to bless.

2 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.

Our world is arguably moving much faster than it was in the 1800's, yet even then, Longstaff recognized that the pace and the pressures of this world could easily draw us along with them and we could fail to spend the time with God that we need and that He desires. We are instructed to spend "much time" with Jesus in a quiet place where we are not distracted or interrupted. There has been a movement over the last number of years encouraging Christians to create a 'prayer closet' in which to pray, but many people do not have the room for that. The importance is to create a quiet space without interruption where and when you can spend time with God in order to hear from Him. In this way, the morning tends to be a good time to get up before the day begins and the pressures of kids and jobs start to impede us. If that is not feasible for you, you can also set apart a different time and inform your family that you are carving out a time for God and close yourself in a room where you can enforce some privacy, like your bedroom, and your family will have to learn that, for all intents and purposes, you are not home during that time. Interruptions will be ignored. The cellphone should also be silenced and out of sight, or better yet, silenced and in a different room. This may take some time to establish the sanctity of your time with God, especially if you have young children, but the rewards will be worth the struggle.

This time spent alone with Jesus and hearing from Him will show us His character, and as we spend time 'at Jesus' feet', we will learn to become more like Him. And as we seek to mimic our Saviour, those around us should see a difference in how we live our lives, not only in comparison to the outside world, but even in comparison to how we used to live our own lives.

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 the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus, still trust in His word.

As we spend more time with Jesus and we become acquainted with His voice; "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27), we will be guided by Him in all of our daily decisions. We will learn to sense the leading of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus told His disciples would be sent as a guide for us; "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." (John 16:13); "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14). Part of the trick of obeying the Holy Spirit as He leads us is to not act before we are instructed to, regardless of the situations that we may be facing. This is what Longstaff is talking about in this verse. "Run not before Him" means to wait on His specific instruction. What we think may be right in a situation at this time may not be right for the situation after all. There may be a sudden change coming up that we are not aware of, but by waiting on the Holy Spirit to instruct us before we act, we can act in the appropriate way at the appropriate time, which will always bring about the outcome that God desires.

We are to follow our Saviour in all things. This can most definitely refer to His teachings, but just as much, it refers to not running out in front when we think we know what the next steps are. I referred to this to some degree in my article called "Waiting on God Correctly". Regardless of whether things are going well or things are difficult, we are to follow Jesus, looking to Him for our guidance and trusting in His written and spoken Words to us.

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.

As we are waiting on God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit, which are all of one mind and heart, we are entreated to remain calm, not only outwardly but inwardly as well. I have struggled with this myself too many times to list. I have gotten better at it with time and practice, but there are still times when the pressures of this world are almost too much to bear up under, and looking at my situation, I wonder how we will get through. Yet God has always been faithful and I need to learn to rest more on His proven track record. Maintaining this calmness of the soul involves reining in each thought and the motivations behind those thoughts to determine if those thoughts are of God or not. Holding onto the thoughts that are under His control makes retaining a calm soul much easier, and releasing those thoughts that are not from God helps even more.

Putting all of the above things into practice results in us being lead by His Spirit, and being lead by His Spirit results in us walking His path for our lives. This is not always easy, and sometimes it seems to be at odds with what would appear from the outside to be correct. Unfortunately, living this way is also not normal. Those around you will sometimes challenge you, which can be good if they are doing so from a place of understanding. At the same time, there are those who will not understand and who will challenge you, and you need to learn to follow the leading of the Spirit in whether or not to give them a hearing or not. Sometimes this will mean a separation; maybe just for a time or possibly for good. That decision can be painful to make, but it has been my experience that when a separation is needed, once the decision has been made, you will experience a sense of peace from the Spirit as a confirmation that what you have done is necessary and right. As counter intuitive as this may seem, this can be more an act of love and peace than pursuing relationship where there should not be any.

The final stanza of this hymn speaks to something that I believe along with some of my friends ; that this life that we are living on earth is a training ground in preparation for what we will be doing through eternity. Our life on this earth is short and fleeting, while eternity is forever. Does it not make sense that through our walk in this life, we are being trained and moulded into what we will be and what we will be doing when we enter eternity with God? This is alluded to where the Bible talks about our eternal rewards. We build in this life what our future eternal life is going to be. There are no do-overs; no second chances. We need to be striving in this life to learn to live in the ways that God desires of us, and what we learn here we will bring with us into eternity. We will be serving God in eternity, and our pursuit of holiness fits us with the skills and knowledge that we will need to fulfill our duties in Paradise.

"Take Time to Be Holy" is a short course on equipping us for this life and preparing us for the afterlife. The Bible instructs us that "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). Do we know what being holy looks like? Probably not, but by following the principles that William Longstaff laid out in this hymn almost 150 years ago, we can move so much closer to achieving the holiness that God so desires for us, learning what that looks like along the way.