Come Unto Me

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:1-2).

You invite us to come just as we are.
There’s nothing we need to bring.
Our best efforts are filthy rags,
You provide everything.

You invite us to come with empty hands.
Come and drink and eat.
Partake of Christ, the Bread of Life,
and Living Water for free.

You invite us to come with all our sin,
and lay it down at the cross.
Leaving it there in His nail-scarred hands,
and donning His righteousness.

You invite us to come as daughters and sons,
fully part of Your family.
We’re accepted in the Beloved One.
Once bound, but now set free.

You invite us to come for every good gift,
sent down from our Father above.
All we truly need for life,
given to us by Your love.

You invite us to come, letting go of all else,
everything that does not satisfy.
Humbly receiving Your perfect gift
of eternal life with Christ.

Lord, may we be quick to turn to You and receive all that You graciously give, forsaking all else, and clinging to You alone!

See also: Isaiah 61:10, 64:6; John 4:10, 6:35, 7:38; Ephesians 1:6; James 1:17; 2 Peter 1:3

© 2024 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Say What?

I know some people who, if you ask how they are, will answer “I’m blessed and highly favored!” I believe the thought behind this is probably two-fold—to remind themselves and others that God is bigger than our circumstances, and to create opportunities to tell others about their faith. Those are fine goals. However (no offense intended to those who use that phrase), I get frustrated when I hear it, which probably says more about me than about them. My first thought is usually either “I guess they don’t want to have an honest conversation,” or “I guess I’m the only one who is struggling to make it through another day.”

When asked “How are you,” most people use the default “I’m fine” or something similar. For those who have a closer relationship, perhaps the door opens to share the challenges of life and ask for prayer. In small groups, vulnerability tends to beget vulnerability. Someone has to be the first to let down their guard. While that can be difficult for those of us who struggle with depression and other mental illness, it’s even harder to be honest if we think everyone else is feeling “blessed and highly favored” and we aren’t. And in a culture that values authenticity, it’s easy to feel like you’re being shut out of relationships with those who use scripted responses to common questions.

Most of us probably know that it is God’s blessing that brings us salvation, grace, mercy, and love. Yet knowing that fact doesn’t remove the weight of living with broken bodies and minds. We know these are “light momentary afflictions” (2 Cor. 4:17) when compared with the glory of eternal life. But they don’t feel very light during the decades of this life.

Lament is a valid and valuable part of the biblical canon, particularly in the psalms. David, the “man after God’s own heart,” wrote “O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest” (Ps. 22:2), and “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Ps. 25:16). Even Jesus holds blessing and suffering in tension in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12). The poor in spirit are blessed, though they don’t see the outcome until the kingdom of heaven. Those who mourn are blessed with comfort, but they still mourn. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, but persecution often endures for years. Blessing doesn’t negate suffering.

One might argue that for the Christian blessedness is a fact and not a feeling. However, that’s not how culture uses the term. So we end up having to analyze how this person I’m talking to understands the concept and what they mean in this particular conversation. For me, that’s too much work when I’m already overwhelmed with looking for conversational openings and balancing the weight of depression. My somewhat neurodivergent brain would much prefer that people say what they mean and mean what they say, so I’m not left wondering how I ought to respond. Church culture is hard enough to navigate without throwing around vague and confusing concepts without explanation.

“The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious… Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body” (Prov. 16:23-24).

Related Resources:

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/learning-to-lament-a-guide-to-praying-in-our-hardest-moments/

https://christinemchappell.com/blog/the-soul-care-podcast/

© 2024 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Blessed Forever

As we approach Christmas, it’s likely that you’ve seen or heard some reference to Mary’s song of praise (the “Magnificat”) in Luke 1:46-55. In her book Jesus Through the Eyes of Women, Rebecca McLaughlin notes similarities between Mary’s words and Hannah’s praise in 1 Samuel 2. She notes,

“Looking at Jesus through the ancient telescope of Hannah’s and Mary’s eyes, we see the one who turns the tables on all human power, the one who lifts the humble and humbles the mighty, the one who is the Savior of his people, showing mercy even as he shows his strength.”

One thing I noted in reading through the Magnificat is how little of Mary’s praise is for her own personal blessing of being the mother of the Messiah. While it is true that Mary’s role was unique and that she was blessed in that way, it’s also true that every believer is blessed through our adoption into God’s family through Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. When Jesus began His ministry, some of His first recorded words are proclamation of blessings—the Beatitudes in Matthew 5—for the poor in spirit, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted. In fact, there are several parallels between the Magnificat and the Beatitudes. Mary quotes from many Old Testament passages in saying that God has shown mercy to the meek, scattered the proud, exalted the humble, and filled the hungry.

In Ephesians 1:3 we’re reminded that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” In a recent sermon from Immanuel Nashville, Barnabas Piper notes that Mary wasn’t chosen because she was spectacularly different from other people, and neither are we. God “chose us before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), not for anything we have done but by His own grace and mercy. Our blessed status is entirely dependent on Jesus’s righteousness, not our own. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). And Jesus’s righteousness never changes. We can trust in His promised blessings forever. We can join Mary in saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

During this Christmas season, rather than elevating Mary beyond measure, let’s give our praise to God, who elevates all believers beyond anything we could ever ask, imagine, or deserve. As Amy Orr-Ewing notes in an interview in Christianity Today, “It’s encouraging to know that, whatever our qualifications or status, we can have this deep theological conviction in the reality that Jesus is Lord of all.”

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Psalm 103:2-4).

 

© 2023 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.