“I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love” (Hosea 11:4)

Christ often draws us with love; but oh! how reluctant we are to come to Him! How rarely we respond to His gentle wooing! He calls us to a simple faith in Him; but because we trust ourselves more than we trust Him, like Martha, we substitute works for affection, and serve Him without feeling. The secret to maintaining a sense of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17) is to always be aware that you are IN Christ and Christ is IN you. Another way of saying it, is, Christ is always yoked to you, always working with you, to do His will. 

 We forget what He promised: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We forget His easy yoke, and do good works to appease our conscience, and then, we’re in a state of religious hypocrisy. Christ says, “come, you are My helpmate. Trust Me. I am worthy of your fullest confidence, cast your cares on Me”. “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:30-32). 

 We are poor lovers of our Lord Jesus, not fit to be His servants, much less to be His brides, and yet He has exalted us to be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, married to Him by a glorious marriage-covenant. Herein is love! But, if we don’t obey His gentle drawings of love, He’ll send affliction to drive us into closer communion with Him. He loves us that much. What foolish children we are to refuse those bands of love, and bring upon our backs the scourge of cords, which Christ knows how to use.