Rendered

Rodeos – I’ve been to a few but very few.  I do admit there’s an air of excitement about them, but I can hardly watch the event where a calf is chased, roped, then hogtied in record time.  I know the calf isn’t harmed, but it just seems so cruel although there were a few times I wanted to render some little boys of mine immobile!

What binds you to Almighty God?  We know what binds Him to us: His great love resulting in boundless and unmerited mercy and grace.  But what binds a Believer to His God?  Nehemiah wrote of Israel’s rebellion against God yet His acts of righteousness, “Nevertheless, in Your great mercies You did not make an end of them or forsake them, for You are a gracious and merciful God.” (Nehemiah 9:31)  The “hogtie” is an actual method of tying limbs together, rendering the subject immobile and helpless.  Does such love as Nehemiah wrote of not render us to be ever at the altar of our merciful and gracious God, and say “Bind me here, my God; bind me here with cords, even for ever.” (Spurgeon)  Broken and humbled before Almighty God will render us evermore bound to The One Who redeemed us by His Great Power and Strong Hand. (Nehemiah 1:10)  Stay rendered.