prone to wonder

Acts 7. Picture the scene:

Stephen is preaching to a group that is getting ready to kill him.
His face was shining like an angel.
He was about to become the first martyr of the New Testament church.
He confronts the religious leaders of his day with the sins of their fathers.
He reminds them of their ancestors tendency to turn from God and the leaders He placed in their lives..namely Moses.

v. 39 "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts returned back to Egypt."

The Bible is very clear that our inward reality will dictate our outer experience.

The Israelites wandered in the wilderness because they first wandered in the hearts from God. (Hebrews 3:10)

It is hard to move forward while leaning backwards on the inside.

There was nothing of value left in Egypt for the Israelites and there is nothing left in the world of sin we left to follow Jesus.

A prayer from the old hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

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.    Amen

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