Day 1

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.”  —  JOHN 1:46

What better way to start the New Year than to remind ourselves of what happens when a person meets the living Lord Jesus for themselves. 

Andrew was a fisherman, but also one of two disciples of John the Baptist who had heard John say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John encouraged Andrew to leave his company and follow Jesus instead. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus then bumped into Philip and said, “Follow Me.”  Philip then sought out Nathanael. “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and about whom the prophets also wrote….Come and see,” Philip said to him. This was the start of a great momentum of ordinary people basically saying nothing more profound than, “Come and see”. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did,” said the woman of Samaria. And the townspeople came and many became His disciples.  There can be little more that is as simple as to invite people to ‘Come and see’. We sometimes feel we have to persuade people of who Jesus is, what He did, why He did it, what He now does, and we feel intimidated and overwhelmed by a task that seems enormous, and for which we are ill equipped. These early believers invited people to ‘Come and see’ and left any persuading and convincing to Jesus Himself. We do not convince people of the truth about Christ – God reveals that to them. That is His prerogative, and He does it in a multitude of ways to the heart that is disposed towards seeking and finding Him.  

As the Lord Jesus reveals Himself and breaks through the walls of disbelief, doubt or deception that we have so easily built around ourselves, people may come to know Him for themselves – not because we have persuaded them, but because we have introduced them to a living Christ who will do His own work in their lives. Our invitation is, ‘Come and see’. 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I am so grateful for the examples of men and women in the Scriptures whose lives were transformed by the Spirit of God.  Help me to invite people to see for themselves what Christ can do.

TO REFLECT UPON: Recall the time when I first accepted Jesus into my life. Where was I? What did I sense at the time? Did I tell anyone? How has the indwelling Spirit of Christ changed me since then?