Holy devotion
Every day I will bless you,
And praise your name forever and ever. Psalm 145:2
Read Hebrew 10:1—4,10
If there is one thing about my faith that causes me a deficit of joy, that is, if I find myself held back from actual enthusiasm in in my worship; if I am less than care-free; if I seem somehow not to have abandoned myself to the Lord in the way the great songs of praise, the fulsome psalms of praise would lead me to do; if I can’t take words like ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name,’ if I can’t take these words and put all my heart into them, I wonder why not. Could it be that I have not fully realised that Jesus Christ is my entire sanctification? That means he has once for all set me apart for God. Made me acceptable. Devoted me to God. And held nothing back. I am fully, as I trust Christ, offered to God. I’m holy. I’m wholly his!
Gracious, holy, life-giving Father, you have made me for yourself. You have made me to belong to you alone. In Jesus, through his self-offering, you have taken me to yourself. As I have been given even such a tentative faith in him, you have claimed me, devoted me. I am yours. I am yours alone. I am all yours. So you declare me holy. So I exist for your praise. For your glory. And I am more truly myself when I am fully yours.