“Oh 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 wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”
Seal it, Lord! I let the world leak in and contaminate and clog up and break my heart. (SOS 8:6) My heart and my arm, my affections and my actions, are in great need of a Protector and Guide. It’s a daily sealing, isn’t it? It’s a daily binding. I know this…but somehow expect it to not be true.
I joke that I have a spiritual Alzheimer’s condition. I can be so full to overflowing with truth and confidence in the Lord–great perspective, by His grace having the ability to worship in difficult times, not making mountains out of molehills–and then all of a sudden, usually when I’m tired or when I’ve just been out in the world too much (as silly as that sounds), I am like a person in a maze wearing a mask over my eyes, stretching out arms like a beggar in the dark.
Could this be what most of the Old Testament is about, as the Israelites, the beloved vineyard of Creator God, stake their claim in Him with celebration and solemn vows only to say, as if coming out of a fog with that confused look in their eyes, “What were we supposed to be remembering?”
It’s like that movie 50 First Dates, at least for me. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to watch a video every morning reminding me of the truths that keep me afloat. It’s also like C.S. Lewis’s quote that went something like this: We daily have to be brainwashed. That may sound offensive, but not to me. Yes, Jesus, Living Word, wash my brain and re-train it every day because when You renew my mind all over again I truly am a new creation. And why in the world would I not want to take that offer and be a new creation, despite the work every morning to “recall to mind and therefore have hope…” (Lamentations 3:21)
We need a daily, fresh, current revelation of the love of God for us to live as overcomers. I’m not sure there is any other way. I’m so thankful for the ministers, writers, singers, friends, teachers, just honest people seeking God and sharing His revelations (what is on His heart) with others. They are the prophets of this day, reminding us who we are in Christ and who we can be if we fix our eyes on Him daily. But I am most grateful that while those prophets make a light bulb come on in our spirit, and help us out of the maze, God wants to reveal Himself clearly and personally to each of us, every day, every moment even!
“Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be
