November 4 - Morning"For my strength is made perfect in weakness." — 2 Corinthians 12:9
A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and
for doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own
weakness. When God's warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own
might, when he boasts, "I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and
my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory," defeat is not far
distant. God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own
strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for "it
is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with
their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace.
Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His
strength, or He will never accept their service. That which man doth,
unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the
earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was
sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine
love. God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own
into thee; He will first clean out thy granaries before He will fill them with
the finest of the wheat.
The river of God is full of water; but not one drop
of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His
battles but the strength which He Himself imparts. Are you mourning over
your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of
weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the
preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making
ready for your lifting up.
"When I am weak then am I strong, November 4 - Evening"In Thy light shall we see light." — Psalm 36:9
No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus Himself shall speak
within. Descriptions all fall flat and tame unless the Holy Ghost fills them
with life and power; till our Immanuel reveals Himself within, the soul sees
Him not. If you would see the sun, would you gather together the common
means of illumination, and seek in that way to behold the orb of day? No,
the wise man knoweth that the sun must reveal itself, and only by its own
blaze can that mighty lamp be seen. It is so with Christ. "Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-jona:" said He to Peter, "for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto thee."
Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you
may select, elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual
power, yet none of these can reveal Christ. The Spirit of God must come
with power, and overshadow the man with His wings, and then in that
mystic holy of holies the Lord Jesus must display Himself to the
sanctified eye, as He doth not unto the purblind sons of men. Christ must
be His own mirror. The great mass of this blear-eyed world can see nothing
of the ineffable glories of Immanuel. He stands before them without form
or comeliness, a root out of a dry ground, rejected by the vain and despised
by the proud.
Only where the Spirit has touched the eye with eye-salve,
quickened the heart with divine life, and educated the soul to a heavenly
taste, only there is He understood. "To you that believe He is precious";
to you He is the chief corner-stone, the Rock of your salvation, your all in
all; but to others He is "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence."
Happy are those to whom our Lord manifests Himself, for His promise to
such is that He will make His abode with them. O Jesus, our Lord, our
heart is open, come in, and go out no more for ever. Show Thyself to us
now! Favour us with a glimpse of Thine all-conquering charms. November 4 |