There is a hymn written in 1758 by Robert Robinson that is on my heart today. There is no chorus so I will just present the lyrics in story format. As you read, please visualize the journey as best as you can amidst the Old English words. Take a moment before reading and ask God to give you new insight into the lyrics.
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.
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.
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.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, Oh take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.
These are words that cut deep to my heart. This is me. Prone to wander. It's as if I was designed in such a way that I just can't help but walk off the path. Like a little child - curious about everything, always looking for trouble, never able to stay focused on one thing for very long. Yet, there is One with an outstretched arm always there to take my hand and lead me back to the path I should be on. The second part of this description of my own wandering heart, is the part where I hand that heart over to God and ask Him to take and seal it for His courts above.
What should our response be to the God who walks with us no matter where we are and actually takes our hand to guide us back to Him? We give Him our heart and we ask Him to seal it for His courts above. When we hand over our heart to God we are dying to self and as He seals it in only the way that He can do, we become alive through Christ. Two days ago I blogged about what it means to humble ourselves at His feet and offer our entire lives to Him through faith in Jesus. Yesterday I blogged about His grace because I was distracted mess in great need of it. Today I will blog about the fact that though we make a decision to follow Christ and are forgiven, there is still a rebellious little child in us that is prone to wander. Okay, so I'm still not quite sure what this has to do with the chapter we are about to read but I think we are bout to find out so please open your Bible and read Deuteronomy 11 or click here.
This chapter is entitled "Love and Obey the Lord". We know how important it is to follow the 10 Commandments God transcribed on the stone tablets. Right out of the gate we are faced with a very high expectation when we read verse 1 that says, "Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always." Here we are in another chapter talking about how we need to follow the rules again. ALWAYS. And we just read about how we are prone to wander so this presents quite a conundrum. Thankfully, verses 13 and 22 might provide a solution to this problem.
"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul..."(v.13)
"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him..."(v.22)
Although we recently had an entire chapter devoted to mapping out every of the the 10 commandments , the ultimate command they were being given was as follows:
1. Love the Lord your God.
2. Serve Him with all your heart and soul.
3. Love the Lord your God.
4. Walk in obedience to Him.
5. Hold fast to Him.
When God says something more than once, we know we better pay attention. The most important commandment is to love God. We also must serve Him and walk in obedience to Him but then we read "hold fast to Him." When we love Him and hold fast to Him, He gives us the strength to serve and walk with Him in obedience.
When we give Him our hearts, they no longer belong to us. Then how do we love God? With the power of the Holy Spirit within us. It takes God to love God. And so we will always be prone to wander, and we will always need God's help to overcome our wandering ways, but the way we work on numbers 2 and 4 - serve and obey - is to remember that they are surrounded by 1,3 and 5 - Love God. Love God. Hold fast to Him. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we must choose to love God and hold fast to Him. It is in the constant remembrance of Who He is and the great love He has for us, that we will stay in love with Him. And when we know and love Him, we want to serve and obey Him.
You have heard this before but I will say it again. In the same way that we stay in love with our significant other because of time spent developing that relationship, we can develop a deeper love for God in His presence. And as we fall deeper in love that that someone special, we want to please them and make them happy because of love. Today, I challenge you to do something. Read His Word. Talk to Him in prayer. Worship Him in song. Meditate through journaling. Walk with Him in the quiet of nature. Whatever you need to do. Focus on spending time with Him and you will not want to wander. Focus on spending time with Him when you begin to wander. Focus on spending time with Him and you will wander INTO the greatest, most fulfilling love that you will ever experience. When we focus on spending time with the Lord we stay plugged into the source of Love itself. We will continue to love Him and this is how our wandering hearts get to still fulfill His command to "Love and Obey the Lord."
I am also prone to wander when it comes to food. I have wandered off of every diet and nutrition plan to this point, otherwise I would not be here today. I wander off because of rebellion, because of distractions, because of laziness, because of a thousand other reasons. I am now discovering that the solution is the same for my wandering, physically-hungry heart as it is for my wandering, spiritually-hungry heart.
In Matthew 18:12 we read, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?"And in John 10:14, Jesus said,"I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and they know me."
These verses speak of freedom through Christ through salvation. But I see how they can also lead to freedom through Christ in other areas of our lives. I must continue to spend time developing my relationship with Jesus so that I won't want to wander. But the amazing miracle is that when I do wander, He will come find me and bring back on the path because He is the Good Shepherd who loves me. I'm thankful He hasn't given up on me yet. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, Lord, take a seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.
Father, I surrendered my heart to you the first time, a long time ago. Thank you for claiming it and calling it yours. Today I surrender my heart to you again and ask that you would help me to love You in a deeper way. Help me to want to walk with You every day. Help me to want to choose You and Your way every time. Forgive me for being a wanderer and thank You for coming back to find me when I get lost. Now I need You to help me wander onto the path that leads to physical health and good eating habits. Just as it takes Your power to want to love You, I know it takes Your power to want to make these life changes as well. I submit to You today, Lord. Amen.
Now Choose Life.
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