September 5
I will strengthen them in the Lord. Zechariah 10:12
This is the very assurance our hearts want, as we think of ourselves, and survey the duties and trials of the Christian life. And we cannot too confidently rely on the accomplishment of it, for it comes from the lips of faithfulness and truth. But we may err as to the manner in which it is to be fulfilled, and therefore our expectation is to be regulated and qualified accordingly.
Let us observe, then, that the fulfilment of the promise, as long as we are here, will not exempt us from all cause of complaint. It will keep us in our work, but not cause us to cease from our labor. It secures us assistance in our conflict; but the war lasts for life. However strong our faith, and firm our hope, and long-suffering, unto all joyfulness, our patience, we shall still be sensible, and the more sensible too, of resistance, deficiency, defilement; and still acknowledge that, when we would do good, evil is present with us and groan, "O wretched man that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death?"
This impartation of strength will also be seasonable, and proportioned to the necessities of our condition: "As your days, so will your strength be." What we are to look for is, not grace for imaginary purposes, but for real; not grace for future difficulties, but present; or, as the apostle has it, grace to "help in time of need." It does not, therefore, follow, that what is formidable in the prospect, may be so in the event. You may fear death while living, and not fear it at last. "Is this," said Dr Goodwin, "is this dying? Is this the enemy that dismayed me so long now appearing so harmless and even pleasant?"
These supplies of strength are to be sought after and expected in God's own way, that is, in the use of the means which he has ordained. So his word deals with our hope. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." "Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, and waiting at the posts of my doors." "He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths will faint and be weary, and the young men will utterly fall; but they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength: they will mount up with wings as eagles: they will run, and not be weary, and they will walk, and not faint."
And have I not found it so? In the day when I cried, has he not answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul? Have not I kneeled down with a contracted, and risen up with an enlarged heart? When I have read his word, has he not thereby quickened me? Have I not found him, in his palaces, for a refuge! Has he not sent me help from the sanctuary, and strengthened me out of Zion?
How foolish, then, to avoid religious exercises when I am not in a proper, and spiritual, and lively frame! The means of grace are surely then the most necessary as fire is the more needful when we are cold, and excitement when we are dull.
It is only a part of the truth that we are to pray with the Spirit, we are also to pray for it. Witness the language of the Savior: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Witness the example of the church: "Awake, O north wind, and come you south, Blow on your garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."