The Psalmist described dedication to God in these words: “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander.”1 His plea has been voiced through the ages.
In the late 1700s, a stagecoach rumbled along a rutted British road. Inside, a young woman noticed the old man seated next to her. He seemed burdened and despondent, his sunken eyes barely lifted to acknowledge her presence. Hoping to boost his spirits, she shared a verse from her favorite poem. The words expressed the abounding love for God in her heart. The man began to weep. He told her he had written that very verse; it was from his poem “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Many years ago, he sobbed, he had entered the ministry. The petition “Tune my heart to sing thy grace” had been his intended course. But that had changed; Robert Robinson was “prone to wander.” 2 Eventually, this one-time poet had lost heart.
How easily it happens. In Matthew we read, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.”3 With the best of intentions we pledge to do so. But then distractions pull us away from the Almighty. The noise of daily living muffles our ears to His voice, and the applause of the world turns our heads from Him. Skepticism, anger, disappointment, pride, and self-interest lay claim to our inner souls, and our hearts are hardened, closed to the love and peace we could feel. It happens so gradually we do not feel the change.
In contrast, the Apostle Paul said at the end of his ministry, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”4 What a measure of a life well-lived: to offer our hearts to the Lord, to praise His name by the very way we live our lives. May we not be strangers to His paths and purposes. May we receive the blessings that are His to give from the fount of His never-ending goodness, the fount of His redeeming love.
Program #3908
1. Psalm 119:10.
2. Hymns (1948), no. 70.
3. Matthew 22:37.
4. 2 Timothy 4:7.