Thought for the day – Monday 20th April 2020
Hymns & Psalms 740 My God, I know, I feel thee mine
verse 7
Refining fire, go through my heart
Illuminate my soul;
Scatter thy life through every part
And sanctify the whole.
It is a pity to miss out some reflection on verses 5 and 6 of this hymn in which Charles Wesley expresses the awareness of his sin (‘base desire’) and the antidote to that sin (Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call’).
This call to the Holy Spirit is continued in verse 7, the last verse of the hymn in our hymnbook. In my copy of the 1876 Methodist hymnbook, there are 11 verses to this hymn of which verse 7 in Hymns & Psalms is verse 9 in the 1876 book.
The verse we are considering is a prayer of complete surrender to the Holy Spirit who was left to his followers by Jesus as a helper (see John 14:26). One of the tasks of the Holy Spirit is to help us to grow more like Jesus (see Ephesians 4:13 – “until we all attain… to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”).
In this verse of the hymn, Wesley declares that he is willing to invite the Holy Spirit to invade his heart, to illuminate everything and to sanctify his whole being.
Are you ? The Holy Spirit is just a prayer away and is waiting to hear from you