Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: July 19th

THE SEEKING CHRIST

On the morrow, He was minded to go forth into Galilee, and He findeth Philip; and Jesus said unto him, Follow Me. - John 1:43

"Jesus findeth Philip," who was not seeking Jesus, and who was brought by nobody. To him Christ reveals Himself as drawing near to many a heart that has not thought of Him, and laying a masterful hand of gracious authority on the springs of life and character in that autocratic word, "Follow Me! " So we have a gradual heightening revelation of the Master’s graciousness to all souls, to them that seek and to them that seek Him not. It is a revelation of the seeking Christ.

Everybody that reads this chapter (John 1) with even the slightest attention must observe how "seeking" and "finding" are repeated over and over again. Christ turns to Andrew and John with the question, "What seek ye?" Andrew, as the narrative says, ’’findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, "We have found found the Messias!" Then, again, Jesus finds Philip; and again, Philip, as soon as he has been won to Jesus, goes off to find Nathaniel; and his glad word to him is, once more, "We have found the Messias." It is a reciprocal play of finding and seeking all through these verses.

As it was in His miracles upon earth, so it has been in the sweet and gracious works of His grace ever since. Sometimes He healed in response to the yearning desire that looked out of sick eyes or that spoke from parched lips. And no man that ever came to Him and said, " Heal me! " was sent away beggared of His blessing. Sometimes He healed in response to the beseeching of those who, with loving hearts, carried their dear ones and laid them at His feet. But sometimes, to magnify the spontaneity and the completeness of His own love, and to show us that He is bound and limited by no human co-operation, and that He is His own motive, sometimes He reached out the blessing to a hand that was not extended to grasp it; and by His question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" kindled desires that else had lain dormant for ever.

And so in this story before us: He will welcome and ever answer Andrew and John when they come seeking; He will turn round to them with a smile on His face, that converts the question, "What seek ye?" into an invitation, "Come and see." And when Andrew brings his brother to Him, He will go more than half-way to meet him. But when these are won there still remains another way by which He will have disciples brought into His Kingdom, and that is by Himself going out and laying His hand on the man and drawing Him to His heart by the revelation of His own. But He really is seeking us all, whether through human agencies or not; whether our hearts are seeking Him or not, still in deepest truth. There is no heart upon earth which Christ does not desire, and no man or woman within the sound of His Gospel whom He really is not - in no metaphorical, but in a simple, literal, prosaic sense - seeking that He may draw them to Himself.