God is inviting those who are standing afar off, the onlookers, to come near.

Matthew 22:8-9 explains it best, “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’”

The verses before explain that the King prepared a lavish banquet for his son’s wedding then sent his servants to summon those who had received invitations.

The first thing that struck me was that they had to be summoned. Usually when an invitation is received, especially from a King, one would RSVP, then prepare and show up for the celebration. But these people were physically called twice, at the appointed time, and still didn’t show up. They were busy dealing with the cares of life and some were even so bold that they killed the king’s servants.

Three descriptions come to mind when I consider these people, ‘entitled/deluded, industrious and oblivious’. Some ‘were not impressed’ they thought that they were above going to the king’s banquet, others thought that they had better things to do than sit around sipping wine and filling their stomachs, and others made sport of the messengers. But they all fall into the last category of being oblivious.

This invitation wasn’t just from a random person, it was from the king. The person to whom they were supposed to have sworn an allegiance. Their responses pointed to the fact that they were clueless about the power and authority of the king.

I thought of how this applies to us today. Of how we sometimes ignore the invitations of the King of Kings because we’re unimpressed, or busy making ends meet or just plain oblivious.

If we truly understand that the one inviting us is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, yet loves us enough to invite us into His presence, we would immediately drop everything and go.

Have you been ignoring invitations to spend time in His presence? Have His attempts to woo you been disregarded? Let us pause and ask the Holy Spirit to give us clear sight of who Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords really is, and the magnitude of His love for us.

Be reminded that God’s invisible presence is constantly with us. That there is never a moment that he doesn’t have us in His gaze.

Be reminded that He knows our thoughts before we think them. That He knew everything about us before we were even conceived. That He sees and knows everything about each of our tomorrows.

Be reminded that ‘there is absolutely nothing that God can’t do’. There’s not even something that He would categorize as being difficult. He holds each planet in perfect orbit, and accurately balances the temperature and composition of gases in each ecosystem to strategically maintain each creature. He fuses and replicates cells to continuously populate the earth.

Finally, be reminded that:

*’God loves you with an everlasting love’ (Jeremiah 31:3).

*’Nothing can stop God from loving you.'(Romans 8:31-39).

*’God loves you so much that He sacrificed His only son so that you would be freed from death, the penalty of your sin’ (John 3:16).

* ‘God’s love for you is unconditional’, there’s nothing we need to do to earn it, and there’s nothing we can do to lose it (Romans 5:8).

If you are on the sidelines looking on, God invites you to join the banquet. He loves you too and the scriptures above apply to you. God wants to remove the penalty of your sin and give you a full life, and a future filled with hope. He wants to call you His very own and make all of the provisions in His word, available to you.

Pray with me: Heavenly Father please forgive me of my sins and make me your own. Amen!

If you prayed the above prayer, please leave a reply below and let us know. We would love to connect with you and provide you with some resources.

Be blessed.