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Matthew 8:18-20
There is some debate as to the intent of this passage in what the scribe was intending his words to mean. Some believe that the scribe was genuine in his offering of commitment to Jesus to, “follow You wherever You go,” as he tells Jesus in Matthew 8:19 (NKJV). But the reply of Jesus, while He has not given any reasoning to turn someone away from seeking to follow Him, simply replies to the scribe, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus is letting the scribe know that following Him will be challenging. There is some debate that the scribe, in telling Jesus that he will follow Him wherever He goes is, in the scribes point of view, self-centered as he was not called by Jesus but came to Jesus on his own accord, not letting go of his own agenda.
This is an example of Jesus knowing the true thoughts and intentions of man.
The Bible teaches us that no one can come to saving grace without first being called by God through His Holy Spirit; that we, in our sinful nature, would never, on our own, make a choice to repent of our sins and ask Jesus for forgiveness. Jesus proclaims in John 6:44 (NIV), “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
If we did come to Jesus on our own accord, we must then ask the question, “Why then do we need Jesus, if we can come to Him on our own?” For those of you who have opened your hearts to Jesus, you did so because of a prompting that you felt in your heart to come to Jesus and receive forgiveness and a new life in Him. You felt a pulling/tugging on your heart. Some of you may even call it an irresistible calling that changed you in realizing that God does exist, and that He was calling you to Him at that very moment. But whatever experience you had in coming to Christ, He prompted you through His Holy Spirit knocking on the door to your heart…and praise God, you answered the call and opened your heart to Jesus and His Holy Spirit came into your life and changed you forever, you became a child of God!
Jesus knows our deepest thoughts and desires, and He knows when to call each of us to Him. The most important thing that you will ever do in your life is to say “yes” to Jesus when He calls you.
Dear LORD,
Please help us to understand that opening our hearts to Jesus and accepting Your forgiveness is not something that we can wait around for as if we will decide when to get our lives right with You. Please help us to understand that You will call us, and hopefully that time has not passed, but that when You call us to open our hearts to You and receive the gift of eternal life and forgiveness for our sins, that we will not let that moment pass but will in our own sincerity and humbleness to You…say “yes” and welcome You into our hearts to live forever – in Christ! In Jesus name I pray, amen.