Lent, a Season of Hope: Preparing Our Hearts for Easter, Day 37
Hebrews 4:16:
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
I recently came across this story about Robert Robinson, the composer of, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”:
“Robert Robinson was converted under the mighty preaching of George Whitefield, but later drifted from the Lord. He had been greatly used as a pastor but neglect of spiritual things led him astray. In an attempt to find peace, he began to travel. During one of his journeys, he met a young woman who was evidently very spiritually minded. ‘What do you think of this hymn I have been reading?’ she asked Robinson, handing him the book. It was his own hymn! He tried to avoid her question but it was hopeless, for the Lord was speaking to him. Finally, he broke down and confessed who he was and how he had been living away from the Lord. ‘But these ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing,’ the woman assured him, and through her encouragement, Robinson was restored to fellowship with the Lord.” *
Our God of all mercy says in His Word that His mercy does not depend on our own effort. He says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Rom. 9:15-16)
Mercy is something we as believers should pray for every day whether for our sins or for the consequences of our sins, and so we do that right now:
Lord, we ask, even beg You, O God, to have mercy and compassion on us as we acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness. Though we are undeserving, we humbly pray that your “streams of mercy” will never cease. In the merciful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
“The Gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.”
– John Stott
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
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.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
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;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
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.
O 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 day.
*taken from Be Confident, a study of Hebrews by Warren Wiersbe, p.36
~ painting by Jenedy Paige
