This past year I have been reading through my father's old daily devotional book. It was given to him in 1921 by the Women's Missionary Society of his church. I assume they presented it to him when he left home for the first time.

The book was published in 1920, but the authors are an eclectic collection of men and women from times long before that. Nevertheless, the thoughts that are shared are as relevant today as they were to my father's day, and to the age in which the writers lived. 

I share with you what was written for December 14 by Frances Havergal, who is well-known for her inspiring poetry that resulted in numerous hymns that the church has benefited from for many years. Her thoughts are preceded by this little poem written by A. Warner:

"Lord, I have given my life to Thee,/And every day and hour is Thine,—/What Thou appointest let them be;/Thy will is better, Lord, than mine.

Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into His service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at His disposal, and ask Him to make and keep you ready to do just exactly what He appoints. Never mind about to-morrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it to-day, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful, when to-morrow comes, to ask Him to take it also, — till it will become a blessed habit to hold yourself simply and 'wholly at Thy commandment for any manner of service.' The 'whatsoever' is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a lifetime), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these, if any of them are His appointments for to-day? Let us ask Him to prepare us for all that He is preparing for us."

The practice of daily commitment to the Lord is at best a superficial one—we ask Him to bless the day and then proceed to live it as if He were absent from it. The discipline of commitment and then the patient waiting on Him, and the constant giving to Him of every activity and inactivity of the day, requires conscious effort on our part. But the rewards, the peace and the sure knowledge that we have done His will during that day, cannot be measured.