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Are you mourning,
believer, because you are so weak in the divine life: because your
faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have
cause for gratitude.
Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and
most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood as he
is.
You are as much an adopted child of God as any other believer. An
infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown
man. You are as completely justified, for your justification is
not a thing of degrees: your little faith has made you clean every
whit.
You have as much right to the precious things of the covenant as
the most advanced believers, for your right to covenant mercies
lies not in your growth, but in the covenant itself; and your
faith in Jesus is not the measure, but the token of your
inheritance in him.
You are as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment, yet in real
possession. The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven; the
faintest ray of light has affinity with the great orb of day.
In the family register of glory the small and the great are
written with the same pen. You are as dear to your Father's heart
as the greatest in the family. Jesus is very tender over you.
You are like the smoking flax; a rougher spirit would say, "put
out that smoking flax, it fills the room with an offensive
odour!" but the smoking flax he will not quench.
You are like a bruised reed; and any less tender hand than that of
the Chief Musician would tread upon you or throw you away, but he
will never break the bruised reed.
Instead of being downcast by reason of what you are, you should
triumph in Christ.
Am I but little in Israel? Yet in Christ I am made to sit in
heavenly places. Am I poor in faith? Still in Jesus I am heir of
all things. Though "less than nothing I can boast, and
vanity confess."
yet, if the root of the matter be in me I will rejoice in the
Lord, and glory in the God of my salvation.
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