The Mighty God Is My Strength

To be nothing is ours by nature; but to know that we are nothing and to confess that we are nothing is a gift of his grace. Brethren, we are emptier than emptiness, and more vain than vanity. We may tax language and use extravagant hyperboles, but we shall never be able fitly to estimate our own utter insignificance. We are weakness itself, hampered with the conceit of power; and yet if we can say in truth, “The Lord is my strength,” we cannot estimate how strong we are, for there is no measuring omnipotence.

Come, let us consider the matter, and let each believer speak personally. He who made the heavens and the earth is my strength. He who fixes the mountains firm so that they start not from their places in the day of tempest, when the cedars are breaking, is my strength. Although he will one day rock heaven and earth, and before his presence all creation shall flee away, yet he is my strength. These are but the hidings of power, but, truly, all the force reserved and lying latent in the Almighty bosom is engaged for his saints, and is my portion. Whatever omnipotence can do (and that is a wrong expression to use, for omnipotence knows no frontier or confines to its sphere of possible action) is ours. All that God has done is but little in comparison with what he can effect when his arm shall be bared to complete his mighty purposes; yet all the possibilities that pertain to God belong to his people. “The Lord is my strength.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Sacred Solo." Image by nickliv on Flickr under Creative Commons License, without alteration.

But when He shall be manifested

All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, and therefore are we to proclaim his life-giving word with full assurance of success. He causes the wheel of providence to revolve in such a manner as to help his cause; he abridges the power of tyrants, overrules the scourge of war, establishes liberty in nations, opens the mysteries of continents long unknown, breaks down systems of error, and guides the current of human thought. He works by a thousand means, preparing the way of the Lord. It is from heaven that he shall shortly come, and when he cometh, when Christ himself shall put forth all his might then shall the wilderness rejoice and the solitary place be glad. The reserve force of the gospel is Christ Jesus himself. The latent power which shall at last break every bond, and win universal dominion, is the energy, the life, the omnipotence of Jesus himself. He sleeps in the vessel now, but when he arises and chides the storm there will he a deep calm. He now for awhile concealeth himself in the ivory palaces of glory, but when he is manifested in that day his chariot wheels shall bring victory to his church militant.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Jesus Christ Himself," delivered December 9, 1877. Image by Teo on Flickr under Creative Commons License.