How desperately we need our Father’s guidance! Our flesh is prone to sin and our adversary is seeking our harm. Jesus teaches us to cry out to and rely on God for His leadership and protection. The good news is that (1) He is able – His name is hallowed; and (2) He will – He is our Father who loves and cares for us.

In 1758 at the age of 23, Robert Robinson penned the words to the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount.” It is a hymn of petition. It declares the necessity of God’s faithfulness: “here I raise mine Ebenezer – Hither by thy help I’m come.” And it confesses our weakness: “Prone to wander – Lord, I feel it – Prone to leave the God I love.” The words proved true in Robinson’s life with lapses into sin and instability.

The story is told that Robinson was one day riding a stagecoach when he noticed a woman deeply engrossed with a hymn book. During an ensuing conversation the lady turned to Robinson and asked what he thought of the hymn she was humming. Robinson burst into tears and said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” (Kenneth Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories)

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.

Join us Sunday as we learn to pray for and live under the protecting hand of our Father!