The Servant's Need

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
“Who is sufficient for these things?” We are weak, exceedingly weak, every one of us. If there is one weaker than the rest, and knows that he is so, let him not be at all cast down about that: for the best man, if he knows what he is, knows that he is out of his depth in this sacred calling. Well, if you are out of your depth, it does not matter whether the sea is forty feet or a full mile deep. If the sea is only a fathom deep, you will drown if you be not upborne; and if it be altogether unfathomable, you cannot be more than drowned. The weakest man is not, in this business, really any weaker than the strongest man, since the whole affair is quite beyond us, and we must work miracles by divine power, or else be total failures. If, therefore, omnipotence be not within hail, and if the miracle-working power is not within us, then the sooner we give up the better. Wherefore should we undertake what we have not the power to perform? Supernatural work needs supernatural power; and if you have it not, do not attempt to do the work alone, lest, like Samson, when his locks were shorn, you should become the jest of the Philistines.
This supernatural force is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God Himself. It is a wonderful thing that He should work His marvels of grace through men. It is strange that, instead of speaking, and saying with His own lips, “Let there be light,” He speaks the illuminating word by our lips! Do you not marvel at this, and that He should treasure His gospel in these poor earthen vessels, and accomplish these miracles by messengers who are themselves so utterly unable to help Him in the essential parts of His heavenly work? Turn your wonder into adoration, and blend with your adoration a fervent cry for Divine power. O Lord, work by us to the praise of Thy glory!