John 6
How much is on us when it comes to someone coming to know God? In the day to day, how much is it on us to get it all right? How much is it on the church?
5,000 men, along with some of their wives and kids, followed Jesus to a certain hillside. They had seen the miracles and healings He had performed; that is why they followed Him. Perhaps some had seen the Him heal the man at the pool. Personally, they had just seen the miracle of Him feeding all of them.
They had seen all the right stuff. Jesus could not have done more, yet when He calls for a vote, ‘Don’t work for food that spoils but for the food that endures to eternal life,’ what was their response? ‘What miraculous sign then will you give us that we may see it and believe you?’
How much more could He have done over what He had already done? Still it was not enough. Finally Jesus makes the point, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ And again He said, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him’.
We sometimes do all that we do, thinking that because of it and if we do enough of it, that people will come to know God as a result of it. We get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. We are tempted to think we should do more. It can become quite the monkey on the back. But this passage suggests that it is not on us.
It does not however let us off the hook. We must still love and do good things for others, but we do those things because we are called to do so. We do those things because it pleases God for us to do them.
Jesus said, ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away’. Again He said, ‘And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me’. Jesus invested Himself for 3 years in the lives of 12 men. Those the Father gave Him came to Him and He worked to not lose them.
He did good things for others, but He did not work with them as He did the disciples. He did not work with Nicodemus for 3 years, He simply told him the truth. You must be born again. If the Father would draw him, this was his chance. He did not spend 3 years with the woman caught in adultery. He was gracious to her and told her to go and sin no more. If the Father would draw her, this was her chance. He did not spend 3 years trying to reform the demon possessed man who lived naked among the tombs; He healed him. If the Father would draw him, that was his chance.
God help us not to make the mistake of trying to reform, when all that will really make a difference is You transforming. In light of all, I pray that You would draw people to Yourself and that You would stir us who already know You, to recognize those You are calling and then with the love You put in us, that we would work to lose none.
Hunger and Thirst 