January 22
Devotional
"Striving"
“All the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” John 6: 37.
Thus, I was confounded, not knowing what to do, nor how to be satisfied with this question: Whether the scriptures could agree in the salvation of my soul? I quaked at the apostles! I knew their words were true and that they must stand for ever.
This Scripture did most sweetly visit my soul: “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Oh, the comfort that I have had from this word, “in no wise”! But Satan would greatly labor to pull this promise from me, telling of me that Christ did not mean me. [But] I was a sinner of lower rank, who had done as I had done?
But I answered Satan—there is in this word no such exception—but “him that comes”! HIM, any him; “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” And this I well remember still; that of all the cunning Satan used to take this scripture from me, yet he never did so much as put this question to me. But do you come rightly? Because [then] I saw that to come aright was to come as I was, a vile and ungodly sinner. I had to cast myself at the feet of [His] mercy, condemning myself for sin. If ever Satan and I did strive for any word of God in all my life, it was for this good word of Christ; he at one end and I at the other. Oh, what struggle Satan and I had! It was for verse in John’s Gospel I say—we did so tug and strive—he pulled, and I pulled. But God be praised, I got the better of him. I got some sweetness from the experience.
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