Prone to Wander, Bound by Grace

Robert Robinson was a troublemaker. After his father died when Robert was eight, his mother sent him to London as a barber's apprentice, where he fell in with a rough crowd. At fourteen, he and his friends attended a George Whitefield revival meeting intending to mock the preacher. Instead, Whitefield's words pierced straight through Robinson's defenses. Three years later, the conversion took full root, and the former delinquent became a pastor.

At twenty-two, he penned the hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And buried in its verses is one of the most honest confessions in all of hymnody: "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love."

Think about that. A young man who had experienced radical forgiveness — rescued from rebellion, called into ministry — still felt the pull to drift away. And rather than hide that struggle, he sang it out loud. He asked God to "bind my wandering heart to Thee."

This is what forgiveness looks like in real life. It is not a one-time transaction. It is a daily returning. The Almighty does not wait for us to perfect ourselves before extending grace. He meets us in our wandering. He binds what keeps trying to break free.

If you feel that pull today — that quiet tug away from the God you love — know this: the same grace that first found you is still finding you. You are prone to wander. He is prone to pursue.