January 1st, 2020

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” -Galatians 2:19-20

This is from a devotional. I want to share as we begin the new year to renew our lives and consecrate to Jesus that we belong to Him. We all struggle but here is a testimony to encourage us. Frances Ridley Havergal received Christ at a young age but struggled for years with Christian victory. “I had hoped that a kind of tableland had been reached in my journey, where I might walk awhile in the light, without the weary succession of rock and hollow, crag and morass, stumbling and striving; but I seem born back into all the old difficulties of the way, with many sin- made aggravations. I think the great root of my trouble and alienation is that I do not make an unreserved surrender of myself to God; until this is done I shall know no peace. I am sure of it.”

She struggled throughout her twenties and thirties, pulled in one direction by the acclaim of great London crowds who loved her singing and in another direction by the Holy Spirit. Then one day, at age thirty-six, she read a booklet entitled “All For Jesus,” which stressed the importance of making Christ King of every corner and cubicle of one’s life. Frances made a fresh, complete consecration of God. Years later her sister asked her about it, and she replied: “Yes, it was on Advent Sunday, December 2, 1873,

I first saw clearly the blessedness of true consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light. There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other. He showed me this most clearly.”

Shortly after, Frances found herself spending several days with ten people, some of them unconverted and others
of them Christians not fully surrendered. “Lord,” she prayed, “give me all in this house.” Before she left, all ten were yielded Christians. On the last night of her visit, Frances, too excited to sleep, wrote her “Consecration Hymn,” the song that became here life’s theme. She took its words seriously and prayed earnestly over them every December 2 making changes to her life and lifestyle as needed. the 
first verse says:
“Take my life and let it be, 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love.”

I hope you have a blessed New Year and believe God will do marvelous miracles with our consecrated lives.

In Christ’s steps, Pastor Shaker 


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