Sunday after the Ascension – Friday

Draw me, we will run after Thee. – Song of Solomon 1:4.

Oh, all is accomplished, all is glorious.  We are saved by God’s grace through faith.  Heaven is ours.  But we; what are we?  Has our soul decked itself with festive and resplendent joy in faith, in conformity with, and in honor of, the salvation which has been given us, and the glory we are so firmly assured of?  Has it divested itself of its love for sin?  Has it put on the garments of light, and of the new day which has dawned for it, and does it display their beauty?

Oh, how far we have fallen short of being what we should have been in Thy sight!  We must confess our many shortcomings, faults, and failures.  “Draw me; we will run after Thee!”  Although we have been liberated from sin, death, and the devil so far as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is concerned, we are still surrounded by these enemies, tempted by them, and we daily fight against them, according to the new man.  Our new man is often weakened by this onslaught, and it needs the strength of God’s rich grace in Christ.  There is no other remedy for our weakness, but that which is in Jesus, the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord.  In order to obtain this remedy, this grace to help in time of need, we need to continuously be drawn to Him (John 6:44).

If Jesus, by the Holy Spirit working through His Word, always assures us of His grace and of the forgiveness of sins; if Jesus, by the Holy Spirit working through His Word, always makes us eager for His salvation and of the glory that awaits us; if Jesus, by the Holy Spirit working through His Word, so captivates our hearts that, with all our might, we daily hate sin and daily dearly love Him; in short, if, by the Holy Spirit working through His Word, Jesus takes hold of us with the almighty power of His grace, revealed in His Word, and keeps drawing us unto Him; and if, with the great patience of a Savior, He does this again and again, then we will run after Him in His Word with heart and soul and mind, heavenward.  And, Christian, He will do it through His Word; He does it.  Call upon Him, you dear, weary child of God!  Your dear Savior will keep drawing you to Himself heavenward, in and through His precious written Word.

PRAYER – Yes!  Amen!  My Lord and Savior, do so, I pray Thee.  Without Thee, I can do nothing.  Unless Thou keep drawing me through Thy Word, I shall certainly be left lying by the wayside.  Take hold of me again and again, through Thy Word, dear Jesus, and keep drawing me, through the Holy Scriptures, to follow Thee on the road that we must wander unto heaven.  Do to me, in Thine own Savior-love, what an earthly mother does to her tired and reluctant child.  Keep drawing me to Thee, through Thy Word, that I may safely run the way to heaven.  Amen.

 “Jehovah, let me now adore Thee,

for where is there a God such, Lord, as Thou?

With songs I fain would come before Thee;

oh, let Thy Holy Spirit teach me now;

to praise Thee in His name through whom alone,

our songs can please Thee, through Thy blessed Son!

—

O Father, draw me to my Savior,

that Thy dear Son may draw me unto Thee;

Thy Spirit guide my whole behavior,

and rule both sense and reason thus in me;

that, Lord, Thy peace from me may ne’er depart,

but wake sweet melodies within my heart.”

(Hymn 21, st. 1-2; TLH)