the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
’’He giveth power to the faint." ― Isaiah 40:29.
The Bible, first and last, insists that man shall give unto God, all power, honor and glory and distinctly recognizes his own dependence, ingloriousness and insignificance. Some foolishly gather from this that God is against man, and is jealous lest he should attain to too much dignity. But the very word of God that makes such bitter warfare on the imagined strength and goodness of man, shows us the Lord of the universe ready to bestow his treasures of strength, wisdom and righteousness upon these very defeated and spoiled children of earth, with a bounty that knows no limit. Man imagines that unless he grasp with an unrelaxing hand his rags of righteousness and his bruised reed which he calls a sceptre, he will be utterly and forever a bankrupt. But he is now a bankrupt: his treasures are counterfeit ’, his power is that of a disordered machine, whose wheels revolve for nothing; the fragmentary thing must just be given back to God. Faint with his losses, man then exclaims, " What have I ? " And the word of God makes answer, " Thou hast power, wisdom, knowledge, salvation, heaven." He giveth power to the faint. In him are hid for thee all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. No, the Bible is not the mere spoiler of humanity. It takes from us the dream of things, that it may give angelic realities. It comes to give, believing what it preaches, that it is more blessed to give than to receive; and when it removes aught from man, it is simply that it may make room for its gifts.
Thou hast a friend therefore, thou fainting one. There is power for thee. Dost thou like Esther faint in thy approaches to the king? See, he stretches out the sceptre of his grace that thou mayest confidently draw nigh. Dost thou faint at the thought of appropriating the merits of the Crucified One? Hearken, he speaks to another atrocious felon, of the same deep dye with thyself, saying, " This day thou shalt be with me in paradise!’’ Dost thou faint under some vast responsibility? Thou hast no responsibility that is not also Christ’s; for he is one with thee, and says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Dost thou faint under a multitude of petty responsibilities? He says, again, "Without me ye can do nothing." Dost thou faint under a sense of thy spiritual feebleness, and in-aptitude of resolution? Thou dost well to faint, and to let Christ succor thee. Be faint, and take the power that belongs to the faint. Let faith wait upon fainting.
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