Come Thou Font of Every Blessing, ELW 807
Devotion
Come, thou Fount of ev'ry blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
While the hope of endless glory
fills my heart with joy and love,
teach me ever to adore thee;
may I still thy goodness prove.
Here I raise my Ebenezer:
"Hither by thy help I've come";
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand'ring from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be;
let that grace now like a fetter
bind my wand'ring 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.
Have you checked your credit score lately? Are you credit-worthy? You may have heard that credit scores can serve as an excellent way to oppress people who don’t have many resources—that we've stratified our society and made it nearly impossible for people to climb out of debt, while money lenders prey on those who have the least. We are, rightly, both afraid of debt and consumed by it each month.
And yet this hymn says all Christians must be debtors—to grace! That all among us share a great debt to the God we love. It reminds us that we share a debt that can never be repaid, and reminds us that our debt to grace brings us a responsibility to keep only God as our true God—and never ourselves or our money.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, may I be unafraid to be in great debt to grace. May I see the role of grace in my life as I welcome its working throughout the world. As grace has been given to me interest-free, may I also be just as gracious to others. Amen.