Daily Devotionals

Grace for Today

Devotional: November 12th

Luke 19:5

‘I must abide at thy house’

Read Isaiah 6:1-8

It was not ‘Zacchaeus, come down, because I hope you will let me abide at your house.’ It was not ‘Zacchaeus, come down, because God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, if you will only give me permission to abide at your house.’ No. Our Savior said, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.’ He knew the strong, irresistible necessity of God’s purpose of grace. He said, ‘must’, because Zacchaeus must be saved. Just as much as man must die, just as much is the sun must give light, just so must every blood-bought sinner be saved. ‘Today I must abide at thy house.’ When the Lord comes to a sinner with this ‘must’ of mercy, what a time it is for the sinner then! At other times, we resist his grace, and say, ‘shall I let him in?’ But this time, he says, ‘I must come in,’ and there is no resistance at all. There was no knocking at the door. Grace knocked the door of our hearts open and broke it down bolt and bar and mercy entered in. Christ said, ‘I must save, I shall come in, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.’

My friend, if the Lord Jesus Christ ever comes to you in the power of his Spirit and says, ‘I must abide at thy house,’ there will be no resistance in you. You will gladly receive him. If God says, ‘must’, the sinner cannot and will not say, ‘no’. God’s will must prevail. Man’s will must bow. Let God say, ‘must’, and it must be done.

The sinner runs away from Christ, but Christ pursues him and overcomes him. If our hearts be shut hard against him, he puts his hand in at the door. If we refuse to arise and open to him, he opens the door and says, ‘I must come in.’ In his own well-determined hour of mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ enters into the hearts of those whom he has chosen and redeemed and dwells there for ever. He says, ‘Today I must abide at thy house,’ and so it must be!