Last Sunday morning we had a bit of a last minute change with music. There’s been an awful bug going around here and our worship leader’s family was hit hard. No one was able to fill in for that same reason or another. My Love decided we would go old school a cappella. While the worship team was greatly missed, there was something truly beautiful that morning as we simply sang for Him with only our voices and our hearts.

One of the hymns we sang is a personal favourite. Though this hymn was written close to three centuries ago, the message remains relatable. My Christian walk often seems an undulating wave of devotion and dispassion.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson, 1757

Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer [stone of help/remembrance]
Here by Thy great help I’ve come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
(Precious blood)

Oh, that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace

Come my Lord, no longer tarry
Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless days

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 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

Here’s my heart
Oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

The hymn commences with shouts of praise for the Lord’s redeeming love, grace and mercy. What a wonderful God we serve!

Next is an act of worship: raising ‘my Ebenezer,’ a stone of remembrance. This acknowledges God’s hand in his life. Rocks were often used in Old Testament times to stand as a reminder of God’s help or provision. Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen, likely the place where the Israelites defeated the Philistines. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “The LORD has helped us…” (1 Samuel 7:12). It stood as an altar of praise and thanksgiving. What a faithful God we serve!

In the next few lines, Mr. Robinson acknowledges his need for salvation, his sin and his longing for that day when he will be perfected in God’s presence. He had a troubled childhood and continued to struggle in life. He understood the potential of falling away, asking God to seal his heart forever to Himself and trusting God’s goodness and mercy. What a gracious God we serve!

This is perfectly illustrated several years later in the hymnist’s life:

Thirty-ish years after writing this hymn, Mr. Robinson was traveling when he met a woman who hummed and sang the hymn she was reading. She expressed her appreciation for the hymn, showed the hymnbook to the stranger in the coach, and asked him if he had ever heard it. The stranger sat silently for a moment then began to weep. He said to her, “Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who composed that hymn many years ago. I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings that I had then.” That day he was reminded of the words he had written, and God used them to restore him to Himself. (Truth & Tidings)

The sermon that same Sunday, delivered by a visiting seminary student, was one of the Christian’s call to “run the race” well and all this entails. I think he used three passages, but these are the ones I remember:

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 CSB

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 CSB

In these verses and in Seun’s message, we were encouraged in:

1. starting the race–accepting Jesus’ gift of salvation
2. the importance of our training, discipline, and our focus–keeping our eyes on Jesus
3. our endurance–finishing well.

Does the way God weaves His message to us through His Word, intertwined with whispers of truth in the voice of others, whether a hymnist or a preacher, give you chills, too?

But wait, there’s more!

I, like many Christians, viewed various segments of Gathering25 this past weekend. This event is a global gathering of believers, “intended to catalyze the Church to take Jesus to the world.” Today’s technology allowed us to join with the world-wide church in worship, prayer, listening to inspiring stories, a call to repentance and a renewed zeal for showing Jesus to our communities. A catalyst for revival!

Our lovely women are studying “Seeking Him–Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival” by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and Tim Grissom. As I prayed over our next study, I was drawn to this one over and over. It reflected the message of our Sunday sermons and the tone of our prayer meetings for revival in our church, community and even our nation–all of which first requires revival in the hearts of individuals.

We are in the fourth chapter, Repentance–The Big Turn Around. This week along with the preceding chapters: Revival–Who Needs It?, Humility–Coming to God on His Terms, and Honesty–Silence Is Not Always Golden, is humbling and convicting–causing us to look deep into our hearts, asking God to search us and illuminate what is hidden, in a way that grows us and encourages us to bring everything to Him and seek forgiveness and transformation.

See how one of the Scripture verses she shared in her video echoes that sentiment of Gather25 on taking Jesus to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem:

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Luke 24:45-48 CSB

Nancy also shared this in the corresponding video: “We think of repentance as bad news, but repentance is actually incredibly good news because it places us under the care and the protection, and the Providence and the lordship of Jesus Christ. And as part of His Kingdom, we have access to the glories and the blessings, and the fruit and the mercies of that Kingdom.” (Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Seeking Him) She later states that repentance is not a one-time deal, but rather a continuous attitude.

Now, perhaps, you may be thinking, “Janet, I just don’t see the connections.” That’s ok. God’s Word is alive and active and full of mysteries. God uses His Word to speak to my heart and my needs in different ways and at different times, and He will bring different things to light for you as well. I love this phrase from our fall Bible study: “Interpretation is one; Application is many. There is only one ultimate interpretation of a passage of Scripture; it doesn’t change. However God intended His Word to mean, it means just that–forever. But, we can never cease the process of applying Biblical truth in our lives.” (Howard Hendricks, Living by the Book)

I believe the Holy Spirit is nudging me. Reminding me that I cannot let troubles lead to unbecoming behaviour, disappointments to jade my perspective, or discouragement to immobilize me. Reminding me that apathy, complacency, self-sufficiency, self-righteous thinking, and an unforgiving spirit is sin. I cannot ‘check out’ and continue to expect the blessings associated with an intimate relationship with God. He is reminding me to “keep my eyes on Jesus” not my circumstances.

I am meant to have life abundantly, full of joy, because Jesus has “sealed” my fickle heart with His Holy Spirit! He welcomes me back again and again as my heart is turned toward Him in repentance. He keeps working in my life, even when I am not looking for Him.

I am meant to run the race unencumbered because Jesus carries the cares and burdens of life for me, if I would just relinquish them! He wants me to run the race in freedom–without the weight of unconfessed sin. Jesus wants me to finish well!

I am meant to reflect the person of Jesus to those around me–to show them Jesus and to be His hands and feet! Though I can never do this perfectly, He will help me even in this. Revival in me, will have impact on others!

I am meant to experience personal revival! Taking an honest look at myself is not always pleasant and I cannot let my shortcomings bog me down, but this is a crucial step in being yielded to Him and seeing Him work in me and through me. We sang “The Stand” this Sunday and this verse always excites my heart:

So I’ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
I’ll stand, my soul, Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours (I’ll stand)

(Songwriters: Antonio Romero / Joel Houston / Tania Braun
The Stand lyrics © Hillsong Music Publishing Australia)

“Here’s my heart, Lord…” “My soul…to you surrendered…All I am is yours.” Bring revival, Lord. Breathe new life into my dry and dusty soul. Not as a singular event, but a renewed and ceaseless desire for the continuous transformative power of your Holy Spirit in me.

My friend, are you parched, prone to wander, in need of revival?