We Should Show Our Needs to Christ and Ask His Grace
We should show our needs to Christ and ask His grace, trusting in His mercy and love to transform us spiritually.
Thomas a Kempis, in 'The Disciple' sermon, humbly acknowledges his weaknesses, sins, and need for God's grace and mercy. He seeks comfort, help, and transformation through a deep, intimate relationship with God. Kempis desires to be consumed and transformed by God's love, to be united with Him in spirit, and to find his ultimate joy and fulfillment in God alone.
Text
THE DISCIPLE
O MOST kind, most loving Lord, Whom I now desire to receive with devotion, You know the weakness and the necessity which I suffer, in what great evils and vices I am involved, how often I am depressed, tempted, defiled, and troubled.
To You I come for help, to You I pray for comfort and relief. I speak to Him Who knows all things, to Whom my whole inner life is manifest, and Who alone can perfectly comfort and help me.
You know what good things I am most in need of and how poor I am in virtue. Behold I stand before You, poor and naked, asking Your grace and imploring Your mercy.
Feed Your hungry beggar. Inflame my coldness with the fire of Your love. Enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Your presence. Turn all earthly things to bitterness for me, all grievance and adversity to patience, all lowly creation to contempt and oblivion. Raise my heart to You in heaven and suffer me not to wander on earth. From this moment to all eternity do You alone grow sweet to me, for You alone are my food and drink, my love and my joy, my sweetness and my total good.
Let Your presence wholly inflame me, consume and transform me into Yourself, that I may become one spirit with You by the grace of inward union and by the melting power of Your ardent love.
Suffer me not to go from You fasting and thirsty, but deal with me mercifully as You have so often and so wonderfully dealt with Your saints.
What wonder if I were completely inflamed by You to die to myself, since You are the fire ever burning and never dying, a love purifying the heart and enlightening the understanding.
Sermon Outline
- I. Recognizing Our Needs and Weaknesses
- A. Acknowledge our spiritual poverty and dependence on God
- B. Confess our sins and weaknesses to God
- II. Seeking God's Help and Comfort
- A. Pray to God for relief and comfort
- B. Express our need for God's presence and love
- III. Desiring Spiritual Transformation
- A. Ask God to inflame our hearts with His love
- B. Seek to become one spirit with God through inward union
- IV. Trusting in God's Mercy and Love
- A. Trust in God's mercy and forgiveness
- B. Seek to be transformed by God's love and presence
Key Quotes
“Feed Your hungry beggar.” — Thomas a Kempis
“Inflame my coldness with the fire of Your love.” — Thomas a Kempis
“Let Your presence wholly inflame me, consume and transform me into Yourself,” — Thomas a Kempis
Application Points
- We should regularly acknowledge our spiritual poverty and dependence on God, and confess our sins and weaknesses to Him.
- We should pray for relief and comfort, and express our need for God's presence and love.
- We should seek to be transformed by God's love and presence, and trust in His mercy and forgiveness.