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

Many of you probably immediately identified the familiar Christmas Carol text, “I Wonder as I Wander”. [Listen here] Don’t worry, I am not confused, and neither are you.   I have switched the words around to put emphasis on the wandering.

I have a friend who has a problem with the idea that I am “prone to wander”.  His point is that my new nature is not prone to wander.  While I would agree with Him, I contended that my nature is not prone to wander, but my flesh certainly is.  “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”  Matthew 26:41

This is why Robinson in His text asks God to bind his wandering heart to Himself by virtue of God’s goodness.  In our context I would say our tendency is to get out of tune, to wander away from the Perfect Pitch, God Himself.  So we echo that prayer to be bound and set fast in “tune”, but our flesh is bent on getting out of tune.

When I stop and wonder at the marvelous love God has shown me in sending His Son, [I wonder…how Jesus the Savior did come for to die/for poor, orn’ry people like you and like I] my wondering is not so much, “Hum, that’s interesting” as much as “Wow! why would He do that!?!” When I stop and wonder at His grace toward me, I am overwhelmed by it all.  The issue is not my wondering, but my wandering.

See, if I would stop long enough to wonder, in other words if I would just stop wandering, my mind might be able to slow down enough to allow my spirit to be taught by His Spirit.  I mean wandering in the sense of meandering, going to and fro purposelessly, pictured by the above image.  I think this is a rampant condition for many souls. I think Robinson was acknowledging that through his words.

I do not want to wander anymore.  I want to be bound, settled, centered in God’s goodness.  A fetter is chain used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles.  Generally fetters are not thought of as a good thing.  But when the fetter is not a chain, but an awareness of God’s goodness, and that fetter constrains my wandering heart to the singular purpose of embracing the grace of God, that fetter is a very good thing.

I do not want to wander.  I want to wonder.  Help me Jesus!

Video Log, Come Thou Fount – Episode 4 

Sorry! This content is for Members only. Become a Free Member today by signing up here.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90

Listen as you read.  This version from In Reverence by David Tolk.

In short, absolutely not!

It sure feels like it sometimes though.  I mean, we have some really hard days.  And sometimes the hard days string into hard weeks, months, even years.

And it makes sense.  Flesh and sin are trouble makers.  If it were not for the flesh, sin would not be an issue for the believer because we have a new nature in Christ.  If it were not for sin, our flesh would have only righteous things in which to engage.  But we have not been freed, or released from the curse.

Even though we are given a new nature when we were in Christ, that new nature still takes up it’s residence in the residue of our sinful nature, the flesh. As long as there was flesh, there will be sinning, even without the influence of the devil and the world, because we have simply grown so adept at it, at least for now.

And there is absolutely this hope not only that we will arrive safely at home, not only that God’s great help will continue to lead us along, not only that we can begin to praise him now even while we wait on our inheritance,  but ultimately in the confidence that one day we shall be free of flesh and sin, no more sorrowing in spirit.

And that is the very thing that helps us deal with our sorrow in these days. Not only the sorrow that comes from our own sin, but also the sorrow that comes as a result of the consequences of the sinful, fallen world.  It may seem like circular logic good let me spell it out.

• The end of sorrowing is coming
• That confidence helps us until our sorrowing ends

The fact that an end is coming to this sorrowing, helps us to deal with the sorrowing. God helps us to move along through this weary world, filled at times with great blessings, as we await on the one to come.  Choose today to set your hope on Christ, to cry out to him for His help to deal with whatever grieves your heart today, and then to praise Him as the help comes.

Fount of Every Blessing, what I seek from You today is a relenting from the sorrow caused by my flesh.  I choose to praise You in advance of my Deliverance, knowing full-well that you will bring it to pass.  Help me to fix my eyes on You as I long for the day when this struggle comes to an end.  As I wait for that Day, give me the grace in this day to offer You my worship.

Do you have a habit that helps you turn the sorrow into praise?  Maybe it is something that would be helpful to others.  No idea is unwelcome.

Video Log, Come Thou Fount – Episode 2 

Sorry! This content is for Members only. Become a Free Member today by signing up here.

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.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90

Listen as you read.  This version from In Reverence by David Tolk.

How true is that!!  His kindness still or yet pursues me, though I regularly or routinely live as though I have no awareness of it.  My mortal tongue, limited by the residue of my sinful nature, simply can not do a very good job of telling of God’s goodness to me.

But that does not give me an excuse not to try.

No Excuses

Even though I may not be very good at proclaim or declaring God’s goodness to me, I am determined to try just the same.  And why wouldn’t I?  After all, the Good Shepherd keeps coming after me, even though I routinely choose to ignore His voice and go my own way.  I tend to be such a stupid sheep sometimes.  Though I know Jesus has a much better plan than anything I could come up with, I am very good at wandering away from His.

Ultimately, I really can not even do a very good job of telling how faithful His pursuing love is, even when I try.  There are limitations that are simply a part of this existence, but that is all going to change, One Day.  As Robinson puts it, “till death shall loose me”, or rather release me from sin’s grip and resultant weakness.

One Day

I will be much better at it One Day.  And how I long for that Day.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, this life has many wonderful things, albeit shadows of what God has in store for us.  This should have the effect of making us long for the day we finally see Him, our Shepherd, face-to-face.  That in addition to the fact that for the first time we will have the full capacity to offer Him praise, coupled with an overwhelming desire to do so.

For these reasons, and so many more, I echo the words from Revelation 22:20, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Good Shepherd, help me long for the day when I will be able to praise you with my lips and life as my soul wants to do today.  My inability to offer You the worship You deserve reminds me of my need for You to continue to pursue my ever-wandering heart.  Thank You Jesus for Your great love.

Does your heart long to sing better praise that you can these days?  What thoughts come to mind as you consider how Jesus, pursued, and keeps pursuing you?  Please share as others my be encouraged by the fact they are not alone in this tension created by praising poorly.

Video Log, Come Thou Fount – Episode 3 

Sorry! This content is for Members only. Become a Free Member today by signing up here.

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.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90

Listen as you read.  This version from In Reverence by David Tolk.

You.  He wants to hear you.  And not just hear you, but see you.  You see your life is a song.  Actually, it is a song of praise.  Your life boldly declares what you believe is worthy of worship, even when your lips are not moving and there is no sound coming from you.

You see, you may not be a great singer, actually you may be pretty terrible, but God wants to hear your voice lifted in praise.  He wants to see your life spent to bring Him glory.  He does not “hear” as our ears hear.  As C.S. Lewis put it in his brief essay, “On Church Music”, God accepts our offering like a parent accepts the artwork of their child, not on artistic merit, but intent.  The heart is the issue.  [You can read the entire article here.]

Notice the hymn writer asks God to “tune my heart”, not “tune my voice”.  After all, since the dawn of time He has heard the praises of heavenly beings, so how can my voice compete.  Every day His creation pours forth praise, so where would my vocal chords stack up?  Thankfully, His favorite song is that of the redeemed.

I love how theBrooklyn Tabernacle Choir puts it in there song,  Favorite Song of All.

“But His favorite song of all, is the song of the redeemed,
When lost sinners now made clean, lift their voices loud strong…”

I hope you’ll sing, but I really hope you will determine to live your life before God, in response to His redeeming love, in such a way that it is music to His ears, even if the pitch might not be to your neighbors.

So what will you do today to tune your heart, or demonstrate to God you want Him to tune it?  Comment below for someone make be inspired by your decision.  Tuning takes time, and can only be done by adjusting untuned notes back to some standard.  Our standard is His perfect love.  Consider again today His never-ending streams of mercy and His redeeming love, and let Him tune your heart.

Like it so far, this journey toward greater resonance?  Click here to move on to the next installment now.  Or simply go back to our Home page and search under blogs where you can access all of them anytime!

Video Log, Come Thou Fount – Episode 1 

More Video Logs like this one are available in our Free Member Content Library.  Click here to find out more about it!