Streams of Mercy

Saturday, August 22, 2009, 6:10 a.m. – I woke to this song:

Come, Thou Fount / Robert Robinson / John Wyeth

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.

Hitherto Thy love has blessed me
Thou has brought me to this place
And I know Thy hand will bring me
Safely home by Thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

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.

I woke with a throbbing headache – like ones I get when a bad storm is coming. And, I still have the headache. Lord, take over for my head, I pray in Jesus’ name.

Our youngest son (US Army) moved his wife and two children back to RH yesterday. He is set to redeploy to Afghanistan in another week. We now have all of our children and grandchildren in town (all 17 of us – number 18 is on the way). I wish our son could stay, too.

A young woman and family friend was in town yesterday. She came over to the house. After everything had quieted down and it was about time to wrap it up for the night, she started talking about God, so I asked her about her relationship with the Lord. She stated that it is an “on again and off again” kind of relationship. So, we talked about that at length. She is really battling her flesh and her reactions to difficult circumstances in her life. She frequently questions God and she feels as though she has no future because of her past. I assured her of God’s grace and forgiveness and that he could, indeed, give her a new, fresh beginning. I know that from personal experience, because God did that for me, I told her.

Just as I wrote this, I remembered the title to the hymn (above). Prior to this, all I could remember was the last half of the last verse where it begins “Prone to wander…” Now I could look up the hymn and read how it begins by talking about God’s grace and mercy. Amen! Even though we are prone to wander; prone to leave the God we love, his grace and his mercy are sufficient! We just have to surrender.

Oh, my head hurts really badly! Lord, take over for my head, I pray in Jesus’ name. This is definitely a sinus pressure headache and it is making me sick in my stomach.

Our DIL, Faith’s 30th birthday party is this evening. Our whole family will be there, as well as will be her family and friends. My head is not throbbing at the moment – thank you, Jesus!!

Lord, order up my day for me today. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Lamentations 1, and it fits so well with this hymn and with what I just shared.

How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are upon her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is none to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed feasts.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priests groan,
her maidens grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.
5 Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
captive before the foe.
6 All the splendor has departed
from the Daughter of Zion.
Her princes are like deer
that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and wandering
Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
and laughed at her destruction.
8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly
and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
and turns away.
9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
there was none to comfort her.
"Look, O LORD, on my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed."

10 The enemy laid hands
on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
11 All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
to keep themselves alive.
"Look, O LORD, and consider,
for I am despised."
12 "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger?

13 "From on high he sent fire,
sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
faint all the day long.
14 "My sins have been bound into a yoke ;
by his hands they were woven together.
They have come upon my neck
and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has handed me over
to those I cannot withstand.
15 "The Lord has rejected
all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
to crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

16 "This is why I weep
and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
because the enemy has prevailed."
17 Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has decreed for Jacob
that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
an unclean thing among them.
18 "The LORD is righteous,
yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
look upon my suffering.
My young men and maidens
have gone into exile.

19 "I called to my allies
but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
perished in the city
while they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.
20 "See, O LORD, how distressed I am!
I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside, there is only death.
21 "People have heard my groaning,
but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
so they may become like me.
22 "Let all their wickedness come before you;
deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my sins.
My groans are many
and my heart is faint."

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To be continued...http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11043