Cleanse and comfort bless and save me
Bathe O bathe my heart and brow
Thou art comforting and saving
Thou art sweetly filling now

Fill Me Now 1879
By: Elwood H. Stokes (1815-1897)

Listen to this modern version of this classic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics. Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available as part of an extensive archive of resources. We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today and please consider becoming a Subscriber to support our mission of providing these tools to everyone with access to the internet!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we continue our journey through this penitent text and hymn, make each stanza your own by praying through it. Let’s think about this.

Comfort

Comfort is something we all need. We do not simply enjoy it, we need it. Whether it be pain, distress, loneliness, or some other discomfort the Spirit is the true source of any comfort we recieve.

We may receive if from a parent or a child. It may come from a friend. In some situations even a stranger can bring it.

Can you identify the area where you need comfort today? It probably was already on your mind. Ask the Spirit what it is if you are not sure, then tell the Spirit what it is. Name it either quietly or out loud. It may have been pushed deep down for some time but in these moments let it find its way to the surface.

Thou art comforting and saving

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10 ESV

The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God, and certainly including the depths of me. Knowing me that intimately allows Him to comfort me unlike any other ever could, and that follows His saving work. Invite Him to come and comfort you where you need it today.

Interestingly, the writer revisits two of the works of the Spirit from the opening line of this stanza, comforting and saving. Maybe they are the two most crucial, or the ones He needed most. Either way, they are essential. Echo that prayer from deep in your soul today.

RESONATE!
We acknowledge the comfort and saving work of the Spirit once more. This is not a one time prayer, or even an occasional one. It must become a regular one as we become familiar with the destructive habits of others and ourselves. Pray this simple prayer, “Spirit, comfort and save me.”

Filling

Of course the filling of the Holy Spirit is much sweeter than any eclair, but I want to challenge us to think about this a little differently as we close out our reflections on this hymn.

Imagine this pastry without the filling. It would still be delicious, but not as delicious. Truly the nature of it would change. Certainly our nature is different without the Spirit.

The pastry is sweeter with the filling. There is already sugar in there, but not as much. The taste would be much different. We are not as sweet without the Spirit.

It would even look very different without the filling. It is still a work of art, but not quite as much without the filling. The same is true of us. Though people can not see the filling of the Spirit they can certainly see the effects of it.

The sweet filling simply helps the eclair taste better. The sweet filling of the Holy Spirit helps us be better. Now that is some confection conviction if I ever heard any.

Thou art sweetly filling now

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…John 14:16 ESV

The Spirit comes, fills us, then stays with us forever, always ready to help us as we may need it, and oh, how we need it. He does not only come to teach us, and empower us but to help us. Thank Jesus for the sweet work of His Spirit in you every day.

How sweet is the work of the Spirit! He fills us and does so with an astounding blend of power and gentleness. Invite Him one more time here to come and fill you. Then repeat that simple prayer every day until your work on earth is done.

RESONATE!
The filling and work fo the Spirit are so sweet, yet we often fail to welcome them. Take a few moments today to do that. Pray simply, “Spirit, sweetly fill me now.“

Spirit, thank You for Your filling work and the difference it makes in my life. Teach me to ask for it regularly, making it a habit to welcome your influence. Come, o come and fill me now. In Jesus name. Amen.

Comforted Thinking!

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Image Attribution
Thou art comforting and saving – https://pixabay.com/photos/portrait-model-portraiture-4550039/
Thou art sweetly filling now – https://pixabay.com/photos/eclair-pastry-cake-eclairs-5052481/

I am weakness full of weakness
At Thy sacred feet I bow
Blest divine eternal Spirit
Fill with pow’r and fill me now

Fill Me Now 1879
By: Elwood H. Stokes (1815-1897)

Listen to this modern version of this classic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics. Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available as part of an extensive archive of resources. We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today and please consider becoming a Subscriber to support our mission of providing these tools to everyone with access to the internet!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we continue our journey through this penitent text and hymn, make each stanza your own by praying through it. Let’s think about this.

Sealed

Us

• Weakness
• Full of weakness
• Bowed down

The Spirit

• Blest
• Divine
• Eternal

Our great need creates the perfect contrast to put the power of our God on display. He is so different from us and this stanza shows that very clearly. Still, our fate is intrinsically connected to His person and work.

The Spirit is the One who reveals the truth, and imparts with to us. He seals us, and guarantees our inheritance. He even empowers our praise.

A key part of that work is his sealing us. A seal on a letter had two important functions in ancient times. It verified who the sender was which is very important. It also proved that there had been no tampering with the content ensuring it remained intact from the sender.

The Spirit does this remarkable work in us. He verifies that we being to God. He also proves that there has been no tampering with us, but that we arrive at our location in the condition He intended. He has the authority to do that because of who He is.

Blest divine eternal Spirit

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV

He is blessed and blesses us by sealing us as a guarantee of our eternal inheritance from God. Give praise to the Spirit for helping you believe and then sealing your faith.

The Spirit is also eternal, and divine. He always was and always will be. He is God, plain and simple. He is also holy, without fault or blemish. These characteristics put Him in a position to bless us. Declare to the Spirit you believe His is eternal, divine and blest.

RESONATE!
Our faith does not permit God to do His work in us, but it does position us to receive that work. We need it as we have confessed in the earlier part of this stanza. Acknowledge that you believe the Holy Spirit is the One who can do that work in you and prepare yourself to receive it today.

The Sealer

If we are to be sealed then the Holy Spirit will do the sealing. If we are to be filled then he Holy Spirit will do the filling. Those these are two very different illustrations both very clearly bear the marks of the Holy Spirit.

When wax is going to be sealed on a letter it must first be melted. As it drips onto the envelope it is soft and ready to receive the pressure of the seal. The same thing happens in our spiritual lives. The heat is turned up and we are prepared to receive the indelible impression of the Spirit.

When a vessel is going to be filled it must first be emptied. As it is emptied it is ready to receive the substance that will fill it. The same thing happens in our spiritual lives. We are emptied and prepared to receive the holy habitation of the Spirit.

To be melted and emptied are certainly not pleasant experiences but what can come afterwards can prove extremely useful. Confessing we are weakness and full of weakness is similarly not a pleasant experience either, however, it does prepare us to be full of power instead. That is very useful.

When we are melted or emptied in can be a pretty terrible feeling. The melting prepares us to be shaped and sealed. The emptying prepares us to be fill. When those things happen we are filled with hope. But we must continue to learn the discipline of hoping even as we wait on the filling.

Fill with pow’r and fill me now

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13ESV

He fills us with His power and from that power ushers belief. When we believe, God brings joy, peace and hope abundantly into our lives. Without His filling none of that would be possible. Ask for that filling again today and every day until you see Him face to face.

He empowers us to reflect God with our lives and deflect glory to Him. This is miraculous when you consider we start out full of weakness and is another expression of His incredible work in us. Only with His power could that work occur.

RESONATE!
Do you feel melted or emptied? Maybe God is preparing you to receive His hope. Maybe He is readying you for something else. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit again today and the hope that flows from that filling. Pray simply, “Spirit, fill with power and fill me now”.

Spirit, thank You for revealing how weak I was, and not leaving me there. You revealed Your power to me and then made it clear how You wanted to fill me with the power. Thank You Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.

Sealed Thinking!

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Image Attribution
Blest divine eternal Spirit – https://pixabay.com/vectors/seal-ancient-badge-wax-emblem-152801/
Fill with pow’r and fill me now – https://pixabay.com/vectors/buffer-seal-office-281337/

Thou canst fill me gracious Spirit
Though I cannot tell Thee how
But I need Thee greatly need Thee
Come O come and fill me now

Fill Me Now 1879
By: Elwood H. Stokes (1815-1897)

Listen to this modern version of this classic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics. Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available as part of an extensive archive of resources. We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today and please consider becoming a Subscriber to support our mission of providing these tools to everyone with access to the internet!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we continue our journey through this penitent text and hymn, make each stanza your own by praying through it. Let’s think about this.

Great Need

We come with open, empty hands.

This admission does not come easy for most of us. We have needs. It is rather difficult for most of us to readily admit we have need of assistance beyond our own capacities. In short, we are not naturally a humble bunch.

To admit that we need help, that we need some intervention can be a challenging thing to acknowledge, no matter the scenario. This is especially true at the root of our deepest need, peace with God. The Holy Spirit is the One who meets that need by revealing to us our need of a Savior and the reality that Jesus wants to be that for us.

Among all our other needs, even the most spiritual ones, this is the most crucial. We need strength to live daily for God’s glory. We need patience to deal with the difficult people in our lives. We need peace in the midst of our conflicts. But most of all we need need the Spirit of God to dwell in us marking us as those who belong to Christ.

But I need Thee greatly need Thee

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Romans 8:9 ESV

We need the Spirit because He is the one who imparts Christ to us. It is imperative for our salvation that we have Christ and thanks be to God the Spirit makes Him ours and us His. Ask Him to help you live in the Spirit instead of the flesh, then make that choice again every day.

RESONATE!
Have you ever acknowledged this deepest of needs, your need for a Savior? If you have, rejoice that it was the Spirit in you that allowed you to do so, and that same Spirit who revealed Christ to you. If not, do so today. Pray, “Spirit, I confess my need of a Savior and pray you will make me His and He mine.” 

The Gift

God fills those open empty hands with light and love, with Himself.

When we acknowledge our need to God, whether for a Savior or for any other need which He reveals to us, He delights to fill that need. He reveals it so that He can meet it and in doing so allow us the privilege of knowing Him more. The need becomes a way for us to come to know God and His goodness to us.

If you have a need in your life today do not hesitate to bring it to God. Bring it in your open hand and give it to Him. Then wait patiently to see what He will do with it.

Allow that practice to remind you of your greatest need to routinely come to Him for filling. That filling enables you to live or abide in Him and He in you. This is the work of the Spirit. Thanks be to God!

Come O come and fill me now

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 1 John 4:13ESV

He has given us of His Spirit so we abide in Him. We must make that choice every day, the choice to live in Him as He lives in us. It seems so simple and in many ways it is, but we make it difficult. Ask the Spirit to help you make abiding in Him simpler every day.

RESONATE!
Are you abiding or living with a continual awareness of God’s presence? The Holy Spirit and He alone is the one that will help you cultivate that kind of awareness. That is precisely why it is so important to routinely pray simple prayers that acknowledge your need and ask Him to meet it. Pray, “Spirit, come, o come and fill me now.”

Jesus, thank You for the gift of your Spirit. He reveals You to me and helps me realize how much I need You. Help me to welcome His work in my life every day. In Jesus name. Amen.

Continual Thinking!

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Image Attribution
But I need Thee greatly need Thee – https://pixabay.com/photos/hands-two-palms-light-hand-in-hand-1044882/
Come O come and fill me now – https://pixabay.com/photos/hand-bokeh-give-gift-offer-open-3889288/

Hover o’er me Holy Spirit
Bathe my trembling heart and brow
Fill me with Thy hallow’d presence
Come O come and fill me now

Fill Me Now 1879
By: Elwood H. Stokes (1815-1897)

Listen to this modern version of this classic hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics. Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available as part of an extensive archive of resources. We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today and please consider becoming a Subscriber to support our mission of providing these tools to everyone with access to the internet!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we continue our journey through this penitent text and hymn, make each stanza your own by praying through it. Let’s think about this.

Hallowed

Here is another word that is not common in our daily speech and needs a bit of explanation. It means honor as holy. God’s presence should be honored as holy. His Holy Spirit fills us with His hallowed presence and enables us to honor it as holy.

How is God’s presence honored as holy by these disciples in those moments they were all filled with the Holy Spirit? They began to speak in other tongues as them the ability to do so. They honored God as holy by speaking languages they formerly did not know.

God knows all languages and wants to be know, loved and worshipped by the people who speak each of them. On the Day of Pentecost when Jews and God-fearers had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the known world God chose to honor His name as holy by giving His disciples the ability to speak the languages of the people.

Fill me with Thy hallow’d presence

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.   Acts 2:4 ESV

Your experience of the Holy Spirit may not be identical to these disciples who first received Him, but it need be no less real. The filling of the Spirit is a mark of God’s presence with us. Do you long to be filled with the Holy Spirit not matter what that may look or sound like?

Oh, to be filled with the fullness of God. That is what the Spirit does when He fills us. He consumes us with an awareness of the holy presence of God. He is without fault or blemish and to be filled with that perfection is life-changing, whether He enables you to speak in another language or not.

RESONATE!
Have you ever asked God to fill you with His hallowed presence? If not, might it be because you are afraid of what may happen. Don’t be. His desire if simply for you and others to be empowered to honor His name as holy. Beg for that filling today. Pray, “Spirit, fill me with Your holy presence.” 

Come

This closing statement can be viewed as a command, but it would be better interpreted as an invitation. We are certainly not demanding God to fill us with His holy presence. We are asking.

It really is simple. This line captures all the essential elements.

• Humility
• Earnestness
• Desperation

Do those words characterize your approach to God? We tend to complicate this or believe His presence is only for the most reverent. The Holy Spirit wants to fill us all. Maybe you are not convinced about that. Make certain you notice the were “all” in this verse.

Come O come and fill me now

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31ESV

When they prayed…they were all filled. Again, the place where you are gathered may not shake, but God will certainly stir some things in your soul. Prepare yourself to receive the Holy Spirit by simply praying for His holy presence to fill you.

RESONATE!
Have you ever prayed such a prayer? “Spirit please come and fill me now.” If so, you can pray it again. If not, will you consider doing it today? Pray, “Spirit, come, o come and fill me now.”

Jesus, thank You for dressing me in righteousness and making me faultless. I could never have accomplished either, yet you graciously accomplish both for me. In Jesus name. Amen.

Desperate Thinking!

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Image Attribution
Fill me with Thy hallow’d presence – https://hehasyou.org/tag/acts-24/
Come O come and fill me now – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/hand-vintage-line-drawing-line-art-5815041/

Beautiful Saviour Lord of all the nations
Son of God and Son of Man
Glory and honor praise adoration
Now and forevermore be Thine

Fairest Lord Jesus 1662
By: Anonymous 1662

Listen to this simple version of this hymn as you prepare to ponder the lyrics. Please make certain to enjoy the podcast below.

Here is podcast content always available as part of an extensive archive of resources. We have lots of tools and options designed to help you be Resonant!  Check them out today and please consider becoming a Subscriber to support our mission of providing these tools to everyone with access to the internet!!

Everyone enjoy this podcast and transcript below!  It features meditative music and moments to contemplate the Scriptures and reflections shared.

Transcript may be found below, at the end of the blog.

As we conclude our journey through this worshipful hymn ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see Jesus clearly. Marvel at the majesty of our Savior. Let’s think about this.

Every Knee Will Bow

Jesus is the the fairest of all. By far. He has no equal. Not even anyone in His league.

Accordingly, He alone is worthy of all worship. How are you acknowledging Him for who He is? Are you humbling your life before Him every day? Or are you waiting for the day when every knee will bow?

That day is coming. Get ready for it by bowing before Him today. And every day.

Glory and honor praise adoration

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:25 ESV

Because He has become our Savior, He is worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. Jesus deserves glory and honor, praise and adoration, majesty, dominion, and authority. He has the name that is above every name and one day every knee will bow before Him.

Are you driven to offer praise to Jesus? The glory that is due His name and no other? Do you sing His praise? Do you live for His glory? Do you pray and give to see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven? Do you long to stand in His presence and praise Him?

RESONATE!
Take a few moments think about how worthy Jesus is of your worship. There is truly no one like Him. Make this your simple prayer “Spirit, consume my life with a passion to praise Jesus.” 

Every Tongue Will Confess

How about your tongue? Do you use it every day for the glory of Jesus, or for your own glory? He is worthy of your worship now, as much as He will be worthy forevermore.

Now and forevermore be Thine

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 ESV

There will come a time when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Those who know Him will exalt Him accordingly for all eternity. We will never cease to praise Him because He will never cease to be the same. Get your praise started today if you have not already done so.

Praising Jesus forever sounds great. But remember, forever includes today, right now. Are you waiting to praise Jesus? Though we long to be in His presence praising Him forever, forever starts right now. Do not wait for forever to begin. Start praising Jesus today.

RESONATE!
Take a few moments and think about how you use your tongue. Do you use it to praise Him every day? If you are looking forward to spending eternity doing it, maybe you should start practicing that now. Give Jesus praise by praying a simple prayer like this, “Jesus, help me praise you today and every day.“

Jesus, thank You for being Lord of all and for revealing that to me. I long to be in Your presence eternally, but want to practice my praise every day. Help me Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.

Are these thoughts helping you to develop greater spiritual awareness?  Sign-up in the form to the right above to get updates of new tools to help you be Resonant.

Image Attribution
Glory and honor praise adoration – https://escapetoreality.org/2018/06/21/every-knee-shall-bow-was-paul-a-universalist/
Now and forevermore be Thine – http://www.praise-and-worship.com/jesus-christ-second-coming.html