Bind My Wandering Heart To Thee

"Oh, to grace how great a debtor / Daily I'm constrained to be / Let that 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, oh, take and seal it / Seal it for Thy courts above"

                           - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing / Robinson 

      I've been reflecting on this verse a lot lately. I love how it captures my unfaithfulness and God's exceeding faithfulness manifested through his grace. I love how it describes my great love for the Lord yet my fleeting admiration at the same time. I love how it's a desperate cry for God to take the lead in my relationship with him because I will never be faithful to him alone.
   
      I want this to be a place where God is glorified above all. I want everything I write to point to God's steadfast love and faithfulness for his people. So often I slip into the mindset that through the right Christian disciplines and love for others God will accept me. I'll let myself believe that if others think I'm a good Christian then somehow I am a good Christian. When I undoubtedly fail, I feel dejected. However, I've been reminded lately that because Christ died for me, I am already immediately justified. There is absolutely nothing that I did to earn that and there isn't anything I can do to take that away. I'm not a "good Christian" some days and a "bad Christian" on others. God is always faithful to me, despite my constant unfaithfulness to him.

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

                           - Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV)

      Sanctification (a big fancy word for becoming more like Christ), was taught to me in my tween years during the Sunday School hour at my church. Right away, I was fascinated. The concept of not only learning more about God, but becoming more like God as I grew spiritually was so encouraging. I was so excited to know that even though my relationship with God might not always feel like it's moving upward, it is. But, as I tend to do, I made it about me. I thought that I would be responsible for this spiritual growth. I would initiate it and provide spaces for it and then actually get down to work and do it. I thought that my sanctification relied entirely on my own doing.

      Recently I've been reading Jerry Bridges book The Discipline of Grace which explains that sanctification is in no way my responsibility. Sanctification is by grace just as salvation is. As the Hebrews verses mention above, it is God that is "working in us that which is pleasing in his sight". It's so encouraging and humbling to me that it is God that is changing me from the inside out. I can't change myself. I can't sanctify myself.

      I wanted to start this blog with that humbling reminder to myself. I want every post to glorify the work that God is doing in me and in others. He is faithful. So faithful. My best work is considered as dirty rags when compared with his faithfulness. So while this blog will ultimately be marred with sin like everything else in my life, I know that God can use it.

      I picked the name "Bind My Wandering Heart To Thee" because I want every word to express my tendency to wander and God's promise to bind. When God binds (or ties) us to him, he is the one who is knotting the rope. It is through his steadfast love that we are connected. So if my wish is to be with him always then I must come to terms with the fact that I cannot be the one tying the knot in the rope. My knot will always come undone. That's what having a wandering heart means. Minutes after I have tied myself to Christ I will find something else to bind myself to. Only God's knot is secure. Only through God's knot will I be secure. He has bound me to him and that deserves all of my praise. So let this be a call of praise to him and him alone.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

                                            - Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)

If you would like a more visual explanation of God's binding process I'd encourage you to watch the clip below starting at 20:30.