Frances Ridley Havergal :: What Is 'Coming'?

SECOND DAY - WHAT IS 'COMING'?

"Come unto Me." (Mat 11:28)

But what is 'coming'?

One's very familiarity with the terms used to express spiritual things, seems to have a tendency to make one feel mystified about them. And their very simplicity makes one suspicious, as it were, that there must be some mysterious and mystical meaning behind them, because they sound too easy and plain to have such great import. 'Come' means 'come,'-just that! and not some occult process of mental effort.

What would you understand by it, if you heard it today for the first time, never having had any doubts or suppositions or previous notions whatever about it? What does a little child (Mat 11:25) understand by it? It is positively too simple to be made plainer by any amount of explanation. If you could see the Lord Jesus standing there, right before you, and you heard Him say, 'Come!' (Mat 14:29) would you say, 'What does "come" mean?' And if the room were dark, so that you could only hear and not see, would it make any difference? Would you not turn instantly towards the 'Glorious Voice'? (Isa 30:30) Would you not, in heart and will, and intention, instantaneously obey it?-that is, if you believed it to be Himself. For, 'he that cometh (Jhn 6:35) to God must believe that He is.' The coming so hinges on that, as to be really the same thing. The moment you really believed, you would really come; and the moment you really come, you really believe. Now the Lord Jesus is as truly and actually 'nigh thee' (Deu 30:14) as if you could see Him. And He as truly and actually says 'Come' to you as if you heard Him. Fear not, believe only, and let yourself come to Him straight away! 'Take with you words and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.' And know that His answer is, 'Him that cometh (Jhn 6:37) to Me I will in no wise cast out.'

Do you still feel unaccountably puzzled about it? Give a quiet hour to the records of how others came to Him. Begin with the eighth of St. Matthew, and trace out all through the Gospels how they came to Jesus with all sorts of different needs, (Mat 9:10, 14, 18, 20, 28) and trace in these your own spiritual needs of cleansing, healing, salvation, guidance, sight, teaching. They knew what they wanted, and they knew Whom they wanted. And consequently they just came. (Jhn 3:26) Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you want and Whom you want, and you will talk no more about what it means, you will just come. (Jhn 12:32) And then you will say, 'Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world;' and you will say, 'My Lord and my God." (Jhn 20:28)