One day, while I was visiting an old woman in the country, a daughter of hers from a distance came to see her. I soon found out that she was a very unhappy girl. She knew that she was a sinner in the sight of God, and she was anxious about her soul's future. But like many, instead of simply believing on Christ and resting on the finished work which He had already done at Calvary, she thought she must do something, pray more earnestly, and plead anxiously in order to get the forgiveness of sins.
"Oh, I do so long to be saved!" she said, "I beg Him to have mercy on me and save my poor soul."
John 7:3737In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. (John 7:37) was quoted: "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."
But she said: "Oh, what shall I do? I do pray the best way I know how!"
"Yes, dear friend, but suppose when you were coming here this morning, hot, tired, and thirsty, some kind person seeing your condition, came out of her house with a glass of nice, clear cold water and offered it to you. Suppose she said, 'You look very tired and must be thirsty. Come, drink this water; it will do you good.' What would you have done? You would not, of course, have accepted it, but would have begged and entreated her to give it to you, saying, `Oh, please give me that water! I am so thirsty and faint; I feel I shall die if I don't get something to drink. Oh, have pity on me, and give me that
water!' "
"No," she replied; "I would not have acted like that. I would have taken the glass and drunk the water all up."
"Well, now, you say you are longing to be saved; you are thirsting for salvation, and God's Word tells us that 'Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.' Now, what will you do with the living water so freely and so graciously offered?"
"Oh, I see now," she said, "there is no need to cry and pray for that which is offered me. I will gladly take that living water too."
Now, whoever you are, wherever you are, or whatever you may have done, His Word still stands as true as ever.
If you are yet unsaved, consider well that all-encompassing word "whosoever." From your heart may you say, "There is room for me in that word. All my life I have been included in that awful word 'ungodly.' Since He died for the ungodly, I know that He received the full judgment due for my sins. Now, believing on Him, I can never perish, but I have everlasting life. What a wonderful Savior!"