Prone to Wonder and Not so Innocently Like Buddy

Last Sunday I preached on seeing God and His Word rightly and talked about some of the Obstacles or Opposition to this pursuit. In referring to our sinful flesh that fights against our desire for God and His Word I quoted the words from "Come Thou Fount":

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...

The words "prone to wander" came to mind as I was biking with my 3 year old son, Paul (aka "Buddy"), yesterday morning to the coffee shop on Lake Street a half a mile away. During morning rush hour, Buddy and I began to cross Broadway and Lake Street in obedience to the "walk now" sign. I instructed Buddy to start crossing and as we got going, to my momentary horror he failed to look where he was going and starting biking to the right--straight down the middle of Lake Street towards the braked cars who were waiting at their red light. I rushed over to him and redirected his bike in the appropriate direction while smiling and waving at the amused drivers who probably enjoyed watching a wandering 3 year old who was more focused on getting his bike to move fast rather than his destination. I am sure that the momentary panic of a father was also a spectacle to see.

Buddy's wandering was innocent. It was not due to a rebellious spirit or heart condition (although its definitely present). He was childish in his inattentiveness as he crossed the street, something that he corrected with careful vigilance on the way home. However, our wandering from God and the centrality of His Word is not merely an innocent, childish inattentiveness. Psalm 119:36-37 says:

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! (37) Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Prone to pursue selfish gain and look at worthless things, we need God's Spirit to come and take and seal our hearts to Himself. Thankfully, we have Psalms like this to teach us how to ask Him for this help against deadly wandering.