“I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee”
(Isa. xli. 10).
God has three ways of helping us: First, He says, “I will strengthen
thee”; that is, I will make you a little stronger yourself. And secondly,
“I will help thee”; that is, I will add My strength to your strength, but
you shall lead and I will help you. But thirdly, when you are ready, “I
will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness”; that is, I will
lift you up bodily and carry you altogether, and it will neither be your
strength or My help, but My complete upholding. Hence it must be quite
true, that when we come to the end of our strength, we come to the
beginning of His, and that in Him the weakest are the strongest, and the
most helpless the most helped. “He giveth power to the faint,” but to
“them that have no might” at all “He gives more strength,” and His word
forever is, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The answer is a paradox of
contradictions, and yet the most practical truths, “Most gladly,
therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong.”