Glory In the LORD

God's glory is shown in using weak vessels to accomplish His awesome purposes.  He does not need us but chooses to use us and make us fruitful for His glory.  I remember a conversation I had with a pastor who spoke how amazed he was people kept turning up to church week after week:  "They just keep coming back," he said.  There are many conversations I have no memory of, but I recall this one because it struck me as odd.  I could have understood his confusion if he was the only one responsible for people coming to church, but won't God honour His word?  Isn't He at work in the heart and minds of people to remind and compel them to respond in obedience to gather in His name?  Since fellowship is prompted and sustained by the Spirit of the Living God, his surprise (feigned or not I could not tell) to me was surprising.

In his book Lectures to My Students, I came across something C.H. Spurgeon had to say on the matter:

"Oh, brethren, we ought to preach feeling that God means to bless the word, for we have His promise for it; and when we have done preaching we should look out for the people who have received a blessing.  Do you ever say, "I am overwhelmed with astonishment to find that the Lord has converted souls through my poor ministry"?  Mock humility!  Your ministry is poor enough.  Everybody knows that, and you ought to know it most of all:  but, at the same time, is it any wonder that God, who said "My word shall not return unto me void," has kept His promise?  Is the meat to lose its nourishment because the dish is a poor platter?  Is divine grace to be overcome by our infirmity?  No, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to My Students: Complete & Unabridged. Ministry Resources Library, Zondervan Publishing House, 1989. page 194)

Knowing preaching and teaching is God's work should not promote slackness in preparation or delivery, but wisdom causes our hearts to glorify and praise God when it is useful.  I tend towards pride like other people, and I have learned by God's word coupled with experience if there is anything good found in me it is solely due to God's grace.  Should there be no visible profit from my efforts I cannot blame God for it, yet fruitlessness ought to prompt thorough self-examination to see if the fault is mine.  I ought to own my failures and folly so I might repent, and all glory goes to God who does all things well.  Clutching even a little glory or credit for ourselves is the subtle start of disastrous straying from God.  Such are like Samson who was lulled to sleep on Delilah's knees, who awoke out of sleep without realising the Holy Spirit had left him.  He said, "I will go out as before and shake myself free" yet was promptly overcome, bound, blinded and imprisoned.  Proud Christians may encounter a worse end without an opportunity for redemption, and God keep me from such insidious folly.

While it is surprising how God employs a poor platter or earthen vessel to communicate His word and wisdom, let us not linger there:  may the weakness of the instrument foster praise for the God who works miraculously and marvelously.  What is the strength of a pillar without a solid foundation?  The use of the weak to reveal God's might is His divine plan as explained by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:  "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. ²⁷ But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; ²⁸ and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹ that no flesh should glory in His presence. ³⁰ But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- ³¹ that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."