OSWALD CHAMBERS*
Come to Me…
Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,* and I will give you rest.
Where sin and sorrow stops, and the song of the saint starts. Do I really want to get there? I can right now. The questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by these words— “Come to Me.” Our Lord’s words are not, “Do this, or don’t do that,” but— “Come to me.” If I will simply come to Jesus, my real life will be brought into harmony with my real desires. I will actually cease from sin, and will find the song of the Lord beginning in my life.
Have you ever come to Jesus? Look at the stubbornness of your heart. You would rather do anything than this one simple childlike thing— “Come to Me.” If you really want to experience ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.
Jesus Christ makes Himself the test to determine your genuineness. Look how He used the word come. At the most unexpected moments in your life there is this whisper of the Lord— “Come to Me,” and you are immediately drawn to Him. Personal contact with Jesus changes everything. Be “foolish” enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude necessary for you to come to Him is one where your will has made the determination to let go of everything and deliberately commit it all to Him.
“…and I will give you rest”— that is, “I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm.” He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep.” But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you out of bed— out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity.” Yet we become so weak and pitiful and talk about “suffering” the will of the Lord! Where is the majestic vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?
LORD, HELP YOURSELF TO MY LIFE!
*MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST
PRAYER
Our Father, You have given us many invitations to come to You. You have invited us to come with our sins, to come with our troubles, to come with our mistakes, to come with our cares, to come with our sorrows.
You have told us to come at all times, that we shall never be unwelcome, never be turned away, and never find You too busy to hear us.
You have promised us mercy for our sins, comfort for our sorrows, strength for our duties, wisdom for our ignorance, when we come to You. We thank You for all these precious invitations and assurances.
What would we do, O God, if we might not thus come to You? To whom else could we go? There is no other in all the universe who could help us — as we must be helped. Our hearts are full of praise and rejoicing, that we may thus come to You. There is nothing we cannot bring to You — nothing too small to bring — and nothing too large. We thank You that we are so blessed, that we have all Your divine love and grace to help us in our times of need. We need no other help, but Yours. We come to you with all our burdens.
We have sins. These are our worst burdens. They will sink us to eternal despair unless we find help. We thank You that the Lord Jesus bore our sins, and bore them away. In His name, depending upon redeeming love and mercy, we come with our sins.
We have other needs. We are not strong enough for duty. We cannot stand against the world and the power of Satan. We have no wisdom for life’s problems, its duties, its responsibilities. We need strength, we need wisdom, we need grace — for every moment!
So we come to You, our Father as Your redeemed children. Receive us, bless us, keep us, help us. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.