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.
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90
Wings
“Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets it’s wings.” Are you familiar with the saying from the Christmas Classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”? When I think of Heaven’s courts, I think of angel wings, think Isaiah 6.
Maybe for you, life is anything but wonderful. You appreciate what Robinson is saying here for it resonates with your desire for God to seal your heart for the purposes of Heaven, to make it easier to deal with the disappointments of today. So we ask God to bind us, seal us, for His courts above, not only for the Day when we finally see Him face-to-face, but that we may more faithfully live daily here in His Kingdom purposes.
Sure, it feels like we are bound to fail, and truly, we do every day, but ultimately our inheritance is to fly. You can’t fly if you don’t try. Since we can not fly yet, should we not try? That is to say, should we not endeavor to live each day as if God’s Kingdom has come, which indeed it has? Of course we should, but never in our own strength, always in His.
Paradox
This is the paradox of our faith. It seems like all I can do is fail. It seems as though I am bound to fail. But on the contrary, I am bound to fly. That is, I am bound to God through Christ’s finished work on the cross appropriated to me through faith and my confession in the efficacy of His sacrifice. That binding ensures that my heart is taken and sealed for Heaven’s courts.
“So what’s the problem?” you ask. “Time,” I would offer. Let me explain.
We believe in Christ and owe a debt of love to His grace. We want to live for Him but are confronted by the reality of our daily failure to do so. God exists concurrently in the reality of our present and our future, not to mention our past, and all past.
Newspaper
Though in our living we seem prone to wander, bound to fail, God sees another reality at play. Though it is only now unfolding for us, it is unfolded for Him. Think of it this way. Fold a piece of newspaper. The words that are inside the fold can not be seen by you, but that makes them no less real. As you begin to unfold the paper, you begin to distinguish letters, which form into words. As you continue to unfold the paper, words form into sentences. Once fully open you can read those sentences and begin to have a sense of what is written there.
The newspaper of our lives is unfolding. We can see bits and pieces. Some things make sense, others do not. One day it will all be clear. For God the unfolding is not only happening, He is, but it is finished, He is to come. And by the way, He is the one who wrote the words on the paper in the first place, He was.
I am looking forward to getting my wings, that is, if I will need them. How about you?
Jesus, I believe You are the One to Whom I owe a debt of love I will never be able to repay. Even still I am tempted to wander at times. Bind my redeemed heart to Yours and help me live for You, in this age and the one to come.
Podcast, Come Thou Fount – Episode 1.4
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