O to Grace...

Good morning!

I guess y'all are getting a little tired of Ezra; so, we'll take a break.

"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, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for they courts above."
                                 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Robert Robinson, 1757

We sang a modern version of this beloved, old hymn in church yesterday.  It just blessed me so much!

The language of the hymn reflects the time in which it is written.  Only Auntie Articulate could love the word "fetter" today.  (My family members will understand...)  What in the world IS a fetter, anyway?!

Those of us who have been captured by the grace of the Almighty God of Gods are indeed debtors to that grace.  My branch of Protestantism teaches that because of our eternal salvation we desire to "be debtors".  The extreme love of Father triggers that love within us, to long to please Him.

This is not to say we never sin.  What a ridiculous notion!  But, when we do "wander", we long to return to fellowship with Father.  In fact, we wish that, as the song says, our hearts could be bound to Him, so that it would be impossible to wander!  That would be a type of enslavement, though, and something to which our God, who insists that those created in His image (us!) be given the will to choose, would never subscribe.   Yes, we are given the free will to wander, but not the liberty to linger in our "wandering".

The hymn writer was a young man named Robert Robinson and, when he wrote the hymn, he was 22. Even as a young man, he recognized the eternal struggle between the ways of God and the ways of mankind in his soul.  Church historians record that Robert's father died when he was a young child. This meant that he had to go to work to help support his family.  Unfortunately, he fell in with a bad crowd.  Then, one night, he felt compelled to go hear George Whitehead, a famous evangelist of that day.  To cover up his "weakness", he took his "buds" with him, and told them that the plan was to heckle the evangelist as he preached.  Robert reported later that he left that meeting under deep conviction, but that he did not act on it until three years later, when he converted to Christianity.  He wrote the wonderful hymn 2 years later.

When we give our hearts to Jesus, He DOES seal them, forever and ever.  And, when we wander from Him, His love pursues us, because it remains forever in our hearts.  What a blessed promise!  Satan may toss us, turn us, confuse us, seduce us, entangle us, entrap us, harass us, and fool us, but God's love never fails.

One of my favorite Scripture passages is Romans 8:35-39.

"Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

It is because of this immeasurable love for us that He gave his grace to us, that He gave His Son for us.

And, a fetter?  It was a word that referred to a chain or shackle which restrained a prisoner.

And, DID Robert Robinson wander?  Well, he was converted to faith in Jesus through the Methodist Church and later....he became a Baptist!  ;)

Good morning, Lord!  Although I injected humor into the end of today's post, wandering from your righteousness is nothing to wink about.  I'm so sorry for my wanderings and so grateful for your forgiveness, for Your mercies, which are "new every morning".  Great is Your faithfulness!  (Lamentations 3:23)  Thank you for sealing me with your Holy Spirit, who dwells inside my heart, and walks with me through this life.  The fact that He will deliver me into Your presence upon the death of my earthly body brings me great peace and joy...."safely to arrive at Home".  You are incomparable, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xMVcjHT5e0