Fill Thou My Life, O Lord My God
Fill Thou My Life, O Lord My God
Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In ev’ry part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in ev’ry part;
Praise in the common things of life,
Its goings out and in,
Praise in each duty and each deed,
However small and mean.
Fill ev’ry part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt Thou, Lord, from me, e’en me,
Receive the glory due,
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free:
But all my life, in ev’ry step,
Be fellowship with Thee.
IS BONAR the hymnwriter still alive?” asked a visitor who walked into Bonar’s Edinburgh church. “I always understood he was a medieval saint.” This confusion may be understandable. Horatius Bonar was descended from a long line of Scottish preachers, and his hymns are reminiscent of the monastic hymns of Bernard of Cluny.
But Bonar was not a monk, shut away from the hard realities of life. He began his ministry in the slums, writing hymns for children. He was deeply involved in a movement of evangelicals that pulled out of the national church of Scotland to form the Free Church. And through it all, he worked incessantly. One biographer says, “He was unbelievably immersed in work.” He loved to travel; he loved his family.
Though his life was busy and filled with the cares of family and congregation, he prayed that, most of all, his life might be filled with “praise in every part.”
Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:11
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