“Come”

“Come unto me… and I will give you rest.”* (Matthew 11:28)

To find life and rest, the sinner must first come to Jesus. Yet He said to the Jews, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”* (John 5:40) Reader, is that true with you?

Coming to Jesus to obtain life is only the starting point in the race along the narrow way to a fuller life in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-4). After you have first received life, you must continue coming to Jesus for the daily bread of life. In a child, the physical life forces call loudly for such food as will enable them to develop into higher and stronger life. The same is true of your spiritual life. It seeks after the necessary nourishment to expand into more vigorous life. This is the only way to soul rest. If your spiritual life is denied being fed for even a day, you will suffer some loss of the full assurance necessary to perfect rest. The growing child is a heavy feeder. The healthy, growing soul requires much at the bosom of God. It can become so habituated to regular hours for feeding that it will experience an unrest if the time is passed by. This is true in the life of a child, and why should it be less true in the spiritual life? And if regular feeding of the child is necessary to the best development of its life, why is not the regular feeding of the soul necessary to its development? We beseech you, do not neglect the proper feeding of your spiritual life.

What is the best soul food? Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”* (Matthew 4:4) As the body feeds on bread, so the soul on the Word of God. It was in those early morning hours in the solitary place and those all night on the hillsides in prayer to the Father that Jesus fed His spiritual life. If it was needful for Him to do this, can it be less for us? Jesus says to us, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”* (John 6:57) The words “hath sent me” teach us that Christ lived constantly in the knowledge that He was sent of God, and that He must always be about His Father’s business. To do this He must live by the Father—He must live by His Father’s strength, by His Father’s will, by His Father’s life. To feed on Christ is to not live of ourselves, but for Christ to live in us. We live by His strength, we triumph by His power, we pray in His name, and we do all things for His glory.

To be constantly growing into the more abundant life there must be a prompt obedience to His every command to “come.” If you would walk on the water—if you would keep above the cares of the world and the storms of life that would pull you under—you must heed His word, “Come.” Christ has the words of eternal life. In those words are just such nourishment as our spiritual life demands for its growth and development. “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”* (1 Peter 2:2) Moffatt renders this, “Thirst for the pure, spiritual milk to make you grow up to salvation.” The word “salvation” here means maturity, or to the fullness of Christ. To neglect feeding on the word of God is to neglect cultivating the soul, and the consequence is to soon become weak and powerless in the Christian life. To have power to live a holy life the word of God must be brought into the heart (Psalm 119:11). The words of Jesus must be eaten in the heart, digested, assimilated, and injected into our soul-life. When the oxygen in the air is taken into the lungs and there injected into the blood it kindles a fire and fills us with a physical energy. There are just such elements in Christ’s word as are adapted to the needs of our spiritual life. When these elements are brought in contact with our spiritual life they kindle a fire and fill us with spiritual energy and power. The great mistake multitudes are making is that they are feeding their intellectual life instead of their spiritual life.

“How can I feed my soul on the word of God?” you may ask. We shall tell you in the simplest way we know how, and that is the way God has taught us. Let there be a daily reading of the Bible and meditation upon it. Do not neglect the meditation. You will suffer in your spiritual life if you do. In proportion as we neglect to meditate on the word of God we shall be weak in our souls. Remember, I do not say that you must simply study your Bible. Thousands are studying it by one and another method, and are growing powerless in their soul life. There is a vast difference between simply studying the Word, and meditating upon it. Study will bring it into the mind, meditation brings it into the heart. Beware of those schools and correspondence courses which require a fee for your instruction. The Holy Spirit must be our Instructor and His instructions are “without money and without price.”* (Isaiah 55:1)

We shall give five general rules for getting God’s word into the heart. Be cautious of following any prescribed course of Bible study, for if you follow man’s selection of Scripture you may miss the portion your soul needs most at the time. Doctors may recommend a diet that is good in a general way, but this is not necessarily safe for everyone to follow, for what one needs may be the opposite to the needs of another. We may write books that are good in a general way, but we cannot select the Scripture portions that are the best for nourishing your spiritual life. What you need now, another may not. Pray God to guide you in the portion of Scripture for your meditation. You and your Teacher, the Holy Spirit, know best what will meet the current needs of your life. Whatever portion of Scripture God leads you to read, we shall give you five rules for the reading of it. The Holy Spirit may give you more; this is what the Spirit has given me.

For an example of applying these rules of meditation, let us take Matthew 6:24-34.

First—seek revelation. Read your Scripture selection over carefully and prayerfully, inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal its hidden treasures and interpret them to your understanding. Considering our text in Matthew 6, there are depths in these words that few, if any, have ever descended into. They need to be read slowly and prayerfully while you ask God to give you light on their meaning.

Second—pay attention. Gird up the loins of your mind. Concentrate your thoughts on the words. Do not let your mind wander. If it starts wandering, bring it back. This is the same road any student must take to understand his lesson. You must exercise your will power. If your will power is not exercised it will not increase, and if your will power is not increased by the reading of the Bible, you are not reading it rightly. Do not think that you can get much out of reading this Scripture without great labor. The schoolboy must labor to get mental food, and you will have to labor to get soul food. It will cost you some effort to concentrate your mind upon your reading, especially if you have not developed good habits of study.

Third—have purpose. You must do more than give the close attention of your mind to your reading—there must be intention. Do not forget this. Attention is to study; intention is the purpose of your study. You are not now studying the Bible that you might be able to preach it, or teach it, but for the purpose of feeding your spiritual life that you might grow up into the fullness of God. Turn your heart as well as your mind to the reading. By your spirit take hold upon the words in such a way as to make them a part of your life. Christ’s words are spirit and they are life, and it is only by your spirit that you can feed on those spiritual words. Keep your soul lifted up to God in prayer while you read. Your mind and your heart are to feed at the same time. You are to read in the spirit. Reading the Bible is the listening side of prayer. You pray when you talk to God, and it is no less prayer when you listen to God talk to you through His word. Reading in the spirit deepens the union of your spirit with the Spirit of God. It will loosen the hold earthly things may have upon you, and deepen your interest in things eternal. It will bring God near, and reveal Him in wondrous beauty to your soul. It will fill you with renewed courage and make you strong on the battlefields of life. It will infuse into your inmost being a sense of holy fear, and make each act of life an act of worship.

Fourth—practice what you read. Set your will by God’s power to reproduce in your life what you read in the Book. It will do you but little good to read the Book if you do not practice what you read; it is the practicing that makes you strong. The physical food you eat gives life to your muscles, but if you do not exercise, it will all be lost. You had better not read the Bible at all than read it and not practice it. Reading the selected passage, we come to these words: “Take no thought [‘Be not anxious’RV] for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”* (Matthew 6:25) See that you put into practice what you have read. So consider: how much time did Jesus ever spend worrying about what He should eat and wear? You may say that He had divine power to get what He needed. But Jesus never used that power out of God’s ordained way. He refused to turn stones to bread merely for His body’s sake. At times He took His disciples into the fields for wheat when they needed it, as granted by the law. At times when they had money, He sent them into the town to buy food. He gave enough consideration and thought to send them on this task, but He did not concern Himself with what sort of food it would be. He did nothing for His body that He will not do for yours. If you are God’s consecrated child, your body is just as much His own body as the body He had while here. He will love and care for your body as certainly as He cared for His own, for it belongs to Him. Jesus never became anxious about the things of tomorrow; He never borrowed any future trouble. Though at times the battle to keep this consecration became so intense as to bring forth sweat like blood, He always came through with victory. He sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and God gave Him all He needed for His body. If you will make God’s business your business, God will make your business His business, and He will see to it that you succeed in that business. Do not leave God out, but make it your business to extend God’s kingdom and righteousness in your business. This is the way the Book reads, and you should set your whole heart to reproduce in your life the truth taught in the Bible.

Fifth—be wholly consecrated to God. This perhaps should have been our first rule for reading the Bible. It should be our attitude of heart at the close of each reading. If you have read the Bible prayerfully and in the spirit—if you have listened in your heart to what God has been saying to you through the Bible—you will feel like renewing your consecration to Him. If you do not get a clearer vision of God as you read His word, you have not received the good you should have. The Gospel of Christ is a mirror in which we are to see the face of God. If you have looked into it, and have not seen the face of God, there is some veil of the flesh over your eyes. Oh, that flesh! It hinders multitudes from seeing God in His Book.

As we get a clearer vision of God through the reading of His word, our hearts will respond with a deeper dedication to Him, with a prayer that His beauty might be upon us. When we come to see more clearly the beauty of God’s holiness, our hearts will reach out longingly, pleadingly for that beauty to grow upon us, and it will. Every prayerful, meditative reading of the Bible makes us more like God.

Jesus said, “Come unto me.” Let there be a daily coming to Jesus through His word. There can be no substitute for the Bible in building yourself up in the more abundant life. It is the Gospel of Christ that nourishes spiritual life. By prayerful reading, the Bible leaves an imprint on your soul. Go to your Bible with as full intention to feed your soul as you go to the table to feed your body. The Word in the heart is the secret of a holy and victorious life. If you will spend time each day feeding your soul upon the living Word, you will be strong to triumph over every temptation. It will be a power in you causing you to live above both the petty annoyances of everyday life as well as the greatest storm of attack, and it will fill your soul with peace from heaven.

There needs to be a keener relish for the word of God in many hearts. Those who sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His word are not numberless. There are so few who pant after God’s commandments (Psalm 119:131). Oh, that there might be a greater panting for the Word of Life! There are not many who are rising at midnight to give thanks to God for His judgments (Psalm 119:62). It is not the multitudes, even among the holiest of God’s saints, whose souls are breaking because of the longing they have for God’s Word at all times (Psalm 119:20); not too many today that are esteeming the words of God above their necessary food (Job 23:12). How our souls are grieved to hear of the religious conventions of the present day where the banquets, the watermelon cuttings, and sight-seeing trips are the greatest enticements. Rivers of water run down our eyes because they esteem the banquet and feasting and socials more than they do God’s word. But our heart is still more grieved to see some of God’s own children so neglectful of the blessed Bible. God Almighty, give Thy people a more ravenous appetite for Thy Word!

God’s word is a lamp to guide our feet as we are making the journey of life (Psalm 119:105). It is a sword to enable us to conquer the foes that will meet us on our way to heaven (Ephesians 6:17). It is a mirror to reveal ourselves to ourselves (James 1:23-25). It is water to cleanse the soul and keep it pure (Ephesians 5:26). It is milk to nourish (1 Peter 2:2), it is meat to invigorate (Hebrews 5:14), it is honey to delight (Psalm 119:103).

We beseech you, holy brethren, keep an intense love in your heart for the Bible. Do not neglect to feed daily upon its sustaining food. Pray the Holy Spirit to bring it into your heart with power as you read it. You should be greatly alarmed if your heart is getting calloused so that the Word of God does not make much impression upon it. The finger of God formerly wrote His laws on tablets of stone, but now under grace the Holy Spirit inscribes God’s laws only on melted and tender hearts. Jesus, help us.