Like a Fetter

For the past few months, the old great hymn - "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" has been swirling around in my head. If you've been around me for any period of time, you've probably heard me humming, whistling, singing this tune. In fact, I even have three different versions of it on my Ipod. It has captured my heart in many ways.

But one particular verse has stood out to me. Its the final verse, and it goes like this:

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.

Its a great verse, and I have been chewing on it for a while. But I wonder, how often do we pray like the hymn writer does here? "Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee." This folks, is what a fetter looks like. An image of bondage, submission, surrender.

My wandering, prideful heart will immediately get its first thought out: "Don't listen to this. You don't need this. You deserve to be free! You can do this on your own. Live for yourself. Forget everything else." But never, will my heart be free. I was created to worship. The question is, what will be the object of my worship?

Every person is a worshipper of something. But is what we're worshipping worthy? What we worship is what we plan our lives around - our time, our future, our actions, our relationships, our finances, our thoughts. If you're a pervert, you worship sex. If you're greedy, you worship money. If you're a glutton, you worship food. The list goes on and on: success, fame, the big house, the new car, you name it. Is it worth it? These things aren't bad, but when we start worshipping creation instead of Creator, our object of worship will ultimately fail us.

That is why the hymn writer can confidently pray like he does in this final verse. And that is why I have started praying like this. Because I know, without a doubt, that if God didn't chain me, like a fetter; if he didn't bind my wandering heart; if he didn't seal my heart for the courts above, that I would leave Him in a second. My heart would run, and pervert the act of worship I was made to partake in.

And when we run, we miss out on the fulness of God' beautiful promises.

Jeremiah 32:38-41 "And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."

So I pray. And I encourage you as well. For the Christian and non-Christian alike, stop running from the God who longs with all His heart and all His soul to do you good. In Him is all that we were made to worship. Is He worth it? Incomparably so, He is worth it. 

Above all else, to the God who sent His son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of man, for this alone You are worthy of all praise. 

Let us embrace the God who saved us from our sins. Let Him become our most valued treasure. O God, let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

To express these thoughts far better than I ever could:

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/revelation/revelation-4-jesus-throne

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/sustained-by-sovereign-grace-forever