One day a kindly gentlemen and his wife were walking the streets of the slums of that same city. For the purpose of rescuing some needy child.
They took the young child home with them. Gave him a warm bath, warm food and a soft cozy bed to sleep in. The child rejoiced. The warmth and kindness filled his heart with love and gratitude. How wonderful it was to be cared for.
This wonderful couple gave the child new clothes with their name stamped across the back of it. Anyone who met this child could easily see where he had found refuge.
The child stayed about a week, enjoying the warmth, love and joy of the home and then left. He came by maybe once a week and politely knocked on the door, received his food on the porch, but never went in. He would sit on the porch swing and dangle his legs, eat his food and leave.
The door to the house was unlocked. Above the door was a sign giving an open invitation. "Come in and stay forever."
Why did he only come as far as the porch swing? When he had the opportunity, the desire of the gentlemen and his wife for him to move in and became a permanent part of their home? Was it because he didn't understand the invitation to stay? Or did he not read the sign above the door?
He could have gone in and become a permanent resident. He could have had three full meals a day, the warmth and fellowship of family. The advice and council of the man and his wife. The joy of belonging. The security and rest knowing every minute need was being met. The protection of a Father. He could have the fortitude to face the bully on the street, knowing his Father would defend him.Why then did he not enter in?
Because on the first day when the Gentlemen and his wife brought him home, he understood the invitation to come and be bathed, clothed and filled. But he didn't understand the invitation to stay.
The Invitation...Come unto me-Matt 11:28, Abide with Me- John 15:4
To all of us who have heard and answered the call"Come unto me" comes this invitation also to Abide or "Stay" with me.
When you first came to Jesus. Did you not find his promise to be true? His welcome was hearty. He gave you his joy and love. His pardon was full and free. His love sweet and precious.
And yet you complain of disappointment as time goes on. Your expectations are not met. Your blessings are lost. The love and joy of your first meeting with Jesus is grown faint and feeble and often you wonder why, with such a great Savior are you so flat?
The answer is simple. You have wandered from him. The blessings you are missing are only found in close fellowship with him. You either didn't remember or never understood that the call meant"Come to me and stay with me."
His intention for you is more than a short lived refreshment, only to have you walk away and go back into discouragement and sin.
He has planned more for you than a short lived blessing to be enjoyed only in special times of earnestness and prayer and then to have it pass away as soon as you return to your duties that occupy the greater part of your life.
He has supplied for you a permanent place of refuge with him. Where you can spend every minute of every day with him. Where the work of your daily life can be done in his presence, and all the while you can enjoy unbroken fellowship with him.
Just as he with tender love and compassion says, "Come to me" he also says, "Stay with me."
The story is mine, but the instruction is adapted from Andrew Murray's book, ABIDE IN CHRIST. I love the things I have learned from Andrew Murray, But some of it is hard to read. This is my effort of breaking it down and hopefully making it easy to read and understand in our world today. God bless you!
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