He Seeks Us 2

Mark 1:16-18

Comedian Bill Cosby has observed in his routine that children need to be bombarded with requests from their parents so that the message will eventually sink in. He claims that if you want your child to come to you, you must go beyond saying “come here” and instead say “come here come here come here come here come here come here come here.”

There seems to be some truth to this, and it also applies to most adults. There are few people who will respond immediately to any request you might have. But Jesus seemed to have the ability to get others to respond to him.

Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ call to his disciples. Who did Jesus see? What did he request? What did he promise? What was their response?

Whether or not Jesus addressed total strangers or people he had known for some time we cannot be certain. Were Simon and Andrew simply two men at the seashore or were they two people he had met with on previous occasions? And was their response as immediate as what is presented, or has this been edited for impact?

We can easily imagine any of these scenarios. Jesus has the ability to turn a person’s heart with a single word, and his presence is enough to make people change their lives completely.

What is important here is that Jesus was the one who sought out his disciples. He did not wait for them to come to him. He went out and gathered them, summoning them from their mundane lives and giving them the promise of an incredible ministry fishing for men.

As we consider the many ways in which we can encounter Jesus and enter into a relationship with our God, we must know that we are being sought by God. Jesus is not only waiting for us to come to him, but he is also seeking us with his love. He calls us into a relationship with him that he might change our lives and make all things new for us.

We can seek Jesus. We can realize we need him. And we can be attentive to his call in our hearts, a call into a bright and energizing relationship with the Lord.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you be ready to hear the Master’s call in your life?