Bible Passage: Luke 15:11-13
The hymn writer Robert Robinson who wrote Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which contains the verse “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the GOD I love”, understood those words all too well. Robinson made a profession of faith at the age of 20 under George Whitefield’s ministry & he surrendered his life to preach the Gospel. At 25 he was called to pastor a very prominent Baptist church in Cambridge, England. His reputation as a great preacher exploded quickly & it seemed that his future in ministry had endless potential. Tragically, at the pinnacle of his ministry, the gifted preacher fell into immorality & his great fame & influence crashed as quickly as it had ascended.
Robinson knew the reality of his own wandering heart & lamented over his condition & at the same time longed for GOD to cure his condition. One of the verses in his hymn says:
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.
If we’re honest, we all must admit that we too can feel the proneness of our hearts to wander or slowly drift from GOD. This raises a question — Why do sinners stray further & further from GOD & why do Christians ever leave the intimate fellowship of our loving Heavenly Father? Why are we who are saved, as the songwriter said, “Prone to leave the GOD I love”? That sounds like a contradiction to wander from what we love, doesn’t it?! And yet this is the paradox of the Christian life as we await our future glorification.