GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 9 ~ ~ 1Kings 10:7 ~ ~ “The half was not told me”
This is our second day in the late 1800’s classic Christian book, “Abide in Christ” by Andrew Murray.
And with no less earnestness than He had cried, “Come unto Me,” did He plead, had you but noticed it, to “Abide in Me.” By every motive that had induced you to come did He beseech you to abide. Was it the fear of sin and its curse that first drew you? The pardon you received on first coming could, with all the blessings flowing from it, only be confirmed and fully enjoyed by abiding in Him.
Was it the longing to know and enjoy the infinite love that was calling you? The first coming gave but single drops to taste; it is only abiding that can really satisfy the thirsty soul with drinks from the rivers of pleasure that are at His right hand.
Was it the weary longing to be made free from the bondage of sin, to become pure and holy, and so to find rest, the rest of God for the soul? This too can only be realized as you abide in Him – only abiding in Jesus gives rest in Him.
Or, if it was the hope of an inheritance in glory and an everlasting home in the presence of the Infinite One, the true preparation for this, as well as its blessed foretaste in this life, are granted only to those who abide in Him.
In every truth, there is nothing that moved you to come that does not plead with thousandfold greater force: ‘”Abide in Him.” You did well to come; you do better to abide. Who would, after seeking the King’s palace, be content to stand in the door, when he is invited in to dwell in the King’s presence and share with Him in all the glory of His royal life? Oh, let us enter in and abide and fully enjoy all the rich supply His wondrous love has prepared for us!
And yet I fear that there are many who have indeed come to Jesus and who yet have to confess mournfully that they know but little of this blessed abiding in Him. With some, the reason is that they never fully understood that this was the meaning of the Savior’s call. With others, though they heard the word, they did not know that such a life of abiding fellowship was possible and, indeed, within their reach.
When the Savior would have kept them, they were not found ready to stay; they were not prepared to give up everything and always, only, wholly to abide in Jesus.
To all such I come now in the name of Jesus, their Redeemer and mine, with the blessed message: “Abide in Me.” In His name, I invite them to come and, for a season, meditate with me daily on its meaning, its lessons, its claims, and its promises.