Tuned for His Glory

I hear the notes of my favorite hymn flowing in my mind as I read the lyrics on the page of a book I’ve selected randomly from the shelves that surround me. And these lyrics are so rich, “Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace…” Rarely can I read them, hear them, think them, sing them without my eyes filling with the tears of a heart that has experienced the depth of these words- so real, “Sorrowing I shall be in spirit, Till released from flesh and sin, Yet from what I do inherit, Here Thy praises I'll begin…”. And it becomes more than a hymn. It's a prayer, a plea, an offering before the Lord of thanksgiving, in awe of his grace and love… “O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be! Let your goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.”

Today, there is a fresh measure of musings I wish to consider from this song. When you sing/pray "tune my heart to sing thy grace" are you aware of the pangs of correction involved? Do you see how the Lord has had to teach your heart to embrace his grace? Of how He continues to teach your heart to embrace his grace?

I have this picture of a musician and his guitar. The strings are stretched along the neck between the tuners and the body. And the strings are wrapped around little pegs on the headstock where knobs called “tuning keys” (I know I'm more than likely butchering terminology) are used to take this from a mess of wood, metal, and nylon to functioning, musical instrument. However, it's only when accurately tuned that the strings, when plucked or strum, create the desired sound--the beginnings of a sweet melody begin with the pangs of stretched cords.

Have you seen this true in your own life? In your own heart? Have you been “tuned” to sing of God’s grace? His grace: “Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.”

These are the beginnings of a sweet melody, ey? "tune my heart to sing thy grace" A heart that knows Christ-- knows his grace-- is a heart that sings? YES.

My heart has not been easily tuned. God has been tuning my heart to play His sweet melody since the day he gave my heart its beat. At times it has truly felt as though the cords of my heart and mind have utterly snapped. Yet I wonder, "Does it every really snap, though?"

I am stubborn, and my heart is full of pride which has, at times, kept my eyes closed to His grace in my life. My pride has kept me from being able to sing “Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.” Stubbornness has caused my hearts eye to close to the correction, the tuning by Christ’s truth as my junk is exposed. Like the screech and misplaced sound of an untuned string trying to be whole in the melody, only causing pain. (Can you visualize the musician, trained to identify the slightest misplaced note, squinting with pain in their face at the sound of this untuned tragedy) It has taken great pain to humble me before such a gracious and merciful Savior. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love…” those words…I know them too well. This great pain, inflicted by my sin, has felt like an irreparable break.

A guitarist knows how to gently care for his instrument. Does not Christ know how to care for me, his instrument? The guitarist knows how to turn those keys, ever so gently. Pluck the stings in just the right way, listening intently to the sound it makes, loosening and tightening…until it plays the desired note at just the right pitch and tone. Does not Christ know the sound he desires my heart to play? Is He not more than capable to tune my heart to play his sweet melody?”  

When pride so thick is humbled, it can feel as though you’ve been broken with no hope. It can feel as though your heart-cord has irreparably been broken. “Can a heart-cord be fixed? Is a heart-cord like the strings of a guitar that are unusable once snapped? As a good friend once told me, “There is a hole in every good illustration.” In Christ, our hearts are never beyond the ability to be healed so long as we breathe in these mortal bodies. Christ is our Hope. Christ is also like the skilled, gentle guitarist, tuning us for His Glory. In his hands, our strings will not break before their time. It is because He knows us, intimately. He knows when, he knows what, he knows how, he knows ALL the details of how each of our hearts will be uniquely tuned to sing of His grace.

  I don’t know if you can relate, but in my Christian walk, I’ve found myself expecting to go from “wretched sinner” to “perfect angel” at the snap of my fingers. And anything less (which is always) leaves this cloud of self-condemnation over me. “I know guitars were not an instrument in Christ’s day…perhaps we have reached the limits of that illustration. But of all the parables Christ had,” I think to myself, “do we see an example of how Christ expects our hearts to be tuned, the speed at which it’s achieved?”

I select another book from the shelf. This one is on Matthew 9:14-17. The disciples of John approach Jesus and ask him why they and the Pharisees fast, but the disciples of Jesus do not. Jesus' first point I can clearly see is defense, I understand it at face value as I have learned that Jesus's disciples were with Jesus so they did not have reason to "miss" him, to long for his presence, as he was already there with them!  But the second defense Christ gives had me puzzled.  Why does Jesus give us examples of patching clothes and instructions on "How to Properly Store Your Favorite Wine?"

Matthew Henry offers explanation, explanation that links these ponderings of stretched strings and tuned hearts:

 "Some duties of religion are harder and more difficult than others, like new cloth and new wine, which require most intenseness of mind, and are most displeasing to flesh and blood; such are religious fasting and the duties that attend it. The best of Christ's disciples pass through a state of infancy; all the trees in Christ's garden are not of a growth, nor all his scholars in the same form; there are babes in Christ and grown men. In the enjoining of religious exercises, the weakness and infirmity of young Christians ought to be considered: as the food provided for them must be such as is proper for their age (1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12), so must the work be that is cut out for them. Christ would not speak to his disciples that which they could not then bear, John 16:12. Young beginners in religion must not be put upon the hardest duties at first, lest they be discouraged."

(Matthew Henry Commentary Volume 5; 1999: Page 98-99)

Did you know that the tuner must twist those knobs slowly? Like a rubberband or our muscular system, were you to stretch the stings of nylon to quickly at once, they would snap! In reviewing where I was emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally at different stages of my life, I’ve really come to understand this to be true. I stand amazed to see how the Lord has deepened my understanding of who He is, and in both the simple and complex aspects of life, He has brought maturity. It’s only upon reflection that the measure of maturity is really seen or noticed. And though I know the maturity has come from a line of tweeks that were painful at times, not always pleasant, I know and praise God for the joy of being tuned to sing of His almighty, beautiful, amazing grace! Like the seasoned strings of a guitar, my heart is continually being tuned for HIS GLORY!