Willing to Come

It’s audio devo day! (a day later than usual due to jungle Internet difficulties) 😉 If you would enjoy some soothing prayer ministry along with today’s devo, you can do so right here:

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Last week for our audio devo, we talked about Jesus’ simple yet radically life-altering invitation, “Come to Me.” We marinated our souls in three benefits of responding to it: acceptance, rest, and perpetual satisfaction. Right now, we’re going to dive a little deeper into this subject. We’re going to talk about how to posture our hearts in response to His tender beckoning. How does He desire for us to respond to His call? Let’s dig into a few Scriptures that reveal several answers to this question.

Through the following verses, our Savior asks us to be…

1) Willing to Come. This is first and foremost. We’ve got to be willing to respond to His invitation. Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40, NKJV, emphasis mine). Willing, or not willing? This boils down to the fundamental issue of free will. God did not create a race of robots. How He longs to lavish His love on us if we will only run into His arms! But He will never, ever force us. He also won’t ever cajole or manipulate or pressure us to come. We see this in Isaiah’s prophetic description of Him:

“I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people…” (Isa. 65:2, NASB). All day long, all week long, all month long, He will wait yearningly for us to come, with His arms spread open wide in welcome. Even if years go by, He will continue to wait, His heart brimming over with unending love.

He has so much to give us. But we won’t be able to receive it unless we are willing to simply come and be with Him: “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ But you were unwilling…” (Isa. 30:15, ESV).

When we don’t respond to His drawing, His heart aches with His unmet longing to nurture us. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37, NKJV).

On the other hand, when we are willing to come, how His deepest heart lights up! How His soul bursts with joy over us!

2) Willing to Be Childlike. Jesus doesn’t stop with just willingness. He gets explicit about what kind of willingness He is looking for. Specifically, we need to be willing to be His little ones. “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children” (Mark 10:14, NLT, emphasis mine). We need to be willing to become like children. In fact, He says we can’t even be part of His Kingdom any other way.

Adopting the posture of childlikeness requires much continual humbling of ourselves. Children don’t feel the need to have everything figured out. They just play, carefree, letting Daddy take care of everything. Though not “in charge” of themselves, they enjoy some of the richest liberty known to the human race: the freedom to just enjoy life with no heavy mental burdens. This is what our Abba wants for us!

In this same passage, Jesus took the young children in His arms. He lavished affection on them and blessed them. He is holding out His arms to us too… Do you want a hug, a snuggle, and a blessing from the One who loves you best? Will you come to Him as His dearly beloved little one?

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Have you experienced the feeling of being Daddy’s little one, held in His arms of love?

(We will finish up delving into the riches of Jesus’ invitation on next week’s audio devo. Stay tuned…!)