July 31

I will go in the strength of the Lord God. - Psalms 71:16.

WE may consider this as the language of Christians now. They say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” We here view the Christian as a worker, for so he is. And then he says, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God to the performance of my work;” and he has much work to perform, much with regard to God, much with regard to his fellow-creatures, much with regard to his fellow-members, much in the world, much in the church, much in the family, much in the closet, and much more in the conscience. Is he living on earth? It is with his “conversation in heaven.” Is he living in the flesh? It is “by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him.” He must “walk by faith, not by sight,” must “set his affections on things above, not on things on the earth;” he must “put off the old man and put on the new man.” And can he think of this without exclaiming,-

“Lord, can a poor and feeble worm

Perform a work so hard?”

It is sometimes thought that the character of a Christian is raised too high for the present weak state of flesh and blood; and sometimes our requisitions look fitter for an angel than for a poor depraved man. Be it so; and we have more than the strength of an angel to perform it, for our “sufficiency is of God.” We are to seek this sufficiency; we are to “pray, and not faint;” we are to “pray always, with much prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”

Oh, how does the Christian feel his need of this! and is not this help provided and secured for him? And the apostle says, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Again he says, “The Spirit maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” And without this assurance, Christians would long ago have given up the exercise of prayer, feeling so many infirmities in the performance of it, so that they can hardly call it prayer at all; thus they say, with Hezekiah, “As a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter.”

This also will apply to other things in the Christian’s life, for our Lord says, “Without me ye can do nothing;” and says the church, “The Lord is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.”