The Orphan Who Wrote Our Confession

Robert Robinson was a troublemaker. After his father died in the 1740s, young Robinson ran wild through the streets of London, drinking and brawling his way through adolescence. One evening he stumbled into a George Whitefield revival for the sole purpose of mocking the famous preacher. He planned to heckle. Instead, Whitefield's sermon cut straight through him.

Robinson didn't convert that night. The words haunted him for nearly three years before he finally surrendered to Christ at seventeen. By twenty-two, he was a pastor himself, and he penned the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

What makes this hymn extraordinary isn't just its melody. It's its brutal honesty. Robinson wrote, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." Here was a redeemed man confessing that redemption hadn't erased the pull of the old life. He knew his own restless heart. He knew the gravity of sin still tugged at him even as grace held him fast.

That single line has comforted millions of believers who feared their wandering disqualified them. It hasn't. The Almighty doesn't wait until we've steadied ourselves. He finds us mid-drift. He binds our wayward hearts to Himself with what Robinson called "streams of mercy, never ceasing." Redemption isn't a one-time repair. It's the daily rescue of a God who refuses to let go.