When was the last time you felt yourself wandering from God? I know for me it was yesterday, today, and every other day of the week.
My favorite songs to sing in church are hymns because of the beautiful and raw melodies they contain. The writers pour their hearts out in the midst of illness, despair, joy, sorrow, pain, and blessings, and the messages they communicate are so eloquent I am often times left in tears as the words flow out of my vocal chords.
One hymn that’s been on my mind recently is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson. His lyrics portray his immense understanding of God’s love for us, how prone we are to wander, and how much he desires to continually praise God regardless of his circumstances. My favorite parts of the song are verses one, three and four:
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
Friends, doesn’t that just well up emotion in your soul? I am so prone to wander, and man, do I feel it every day. The world pushes me to make rash decisions, to do what I want; it tries to make me believe that Jesus was just some crazy person who claimed to be God but was just telling a lie.
But listen to those verses again: He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
Who in their right mind would die for someone who absolutely hated them? Who would claim to be the only way to God, predict their own death, and then have it actually carried out?
I am in debt to grace, but that doesn’t make it any easier to serve. I pray this upcoming week that God’s goodness will bind our hearts to Him, and will continually remind us just how much we are in need of a Savior.
making mustard seeds 