Always a Positive Focus!

"I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord." - Exodus 6:7b-8

God's purpose for his people was not to just get OUT of Egypt but to get IN to the promised land.

This has never changed, God's acts always have a positive focus! As Frances Ridley Havergal, author of the hymn, “Take My Life and Let it Be” wrote 120 years ago,

“[T]he … Christ loving heart cannot be satisfied with only negative keeping ... Every, ‘kept from,’ should have its corresponding and still more blessed, ‘kept for’ ... not only kept from sin but kept for His praise.¹

- fritz
 
^{1 - Kept For The Masters Use by Frances Ridley Havergal, 1881, page 23}

Take My Life

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." - John 6:37

' Take my life !' We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be many times; but if it were only once whispered in His ear with full purpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we know that He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it, and fulfilled this, our heart's desire?

Why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives when we offered them—our bodies when we presented them?"

- Frances Ridley Havergal, author of the hymn, "Take My Life and Let it Be"<sup>1


1 - Kept for the master's Use, 1882, pg. 5</sup>