Beautiful Chains
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, 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.
The lines above are from one of my all time favorite hymns: "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." To me, these lyrics bring to mind some very important truths.
First, they're a sobering reminder that even the hearts of the redeemed have a tendency to be pulled away from the Lord. Prone to wander/Lord I feel it/ Prone to leave the God I love.
I so appreciate the song writer's vulnerability here because what Christian really wants to admit this? But isn't it true? Haven't we all felt this tendency to wander? I know I have. And I guess it makes sense. Scripture reveals that we have a threefold enemy trying to pull us away from God: 1) Satan 2) the world system aligned with the spiritual forces of darkness 3) and our own sinful nature.
Now the truth is that as believers we are not simply puppets of these enemies; after all, we have received a new heart through the work of the Holy Spirit. But the struggle is real, as they say, because God's sanctifying work in us won't be complete until the day of Christ's return. So until then we must contend with this threefold enemy, which as we all know is sometimes successful in leading us astray.
And because that's the case, our fight against it must entail repentance when we falter. Friends, please hear this because sometimes we can imagine that "fighting the good fight" only means winning the war against temptation. But that's not all there is to it. Contention also entails getting up when we fall, turning away from sin, and turning toward God and his grace – which is the other significant point that our hymn makes.
O to grace how great a debtor/ daily I’m constrained to be!/Let that grace now, like a fetter/ bind my wandering heart to thee.
What an unexpected yet appropriate image! Our wandering hearts chained to the grace of God. In other words, though we might be prone to wander, it's God's grace that holds us fast and brings us back. That's the wonderful prayer of the song writer, and it happens to be the prayer of our upcoming collect for Sunday as well.
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
What a beautiful collect! God's grace leading the wayward back to him through repentance. And Scripture confirms this truth as well, indicating that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4) so that we can experience his lavish grace and mercy. Kindness, grace and mercy – these are the beautiful chains with which God has bound his people. May we ever adorn them, and may they hold us fast within the confines of his eternal kingdom. Amen.
Darin+