'To usward who believe,' says Paul. He has been talking to these
Ephesians, and saying 'ye,' but now, by that 'us,' he places himself
beside them, identifies himself with them, and declares that all his
gifts and strength come to him on precisely the same conditions on which
theirs do to them; and that he, like them, is a waiter upon that grace
which God bestows on them that trust Him.
'To usward who believe.' Once more we are back at the old truth which we
can never make too emphatic and plain, that the one condition of the
weakest among us being strong with the strength of the Lord is simple
trust in Him, verified, of course, by continuance and by effort.
How did the water go into the Ship Canal at Eastham last week? First of
all they cut a trench, and then they severed the little strip of land
between the hole and the sea, and the sea did the rest. The wider and
deeper the opening that we make in our natures by our simple trust in
God, the fuller will be the rejoicing flood that pours into us. There is
an old story about a Christian father, who, having been torturing
himself with theological speculations about the nature of the Trinity,
fell asleep and dreamed that he was emptying the ocean with a thimble!
Well, you cannot empty it with a thimble, but you can go to it with one,
and, if you have only a thimble in your hand, you will only bring away a
thimbleful. The measure of your faith is the measure of God's power
given to you.
There are two measures of the immeasurable power--the one is that
infinite limit, of 'the power which He wrought in Christ,' and the other
the practical limit. The working measure of our spiritual life is our
faith. In plain English, we can have as much of God as we want. We do
have as much as we want. And if, in touch with the power that can
shatter a universe, we only get a little thrill that is scarcely
perceptible to ourselves, and all unnoticed by others, whose fault is
that? If, coming to the fountain that laughs at drought, and can fill a
universe with its waters, we scarcely bear away a straitened drop or
two, that barely refreshes our parched lips, and does nothing to
stimulate the growth of the plants of holiness in our gardens, whose
fault is that? The practical measure of the power is for us the measure
of our belief and desire. And if we only go to Him, as I pray we all
may, and continue there, and ask from Him strength, according to the
riches that are treasured in Jesus Christ, we shall get the old answer,
'According to your faith be it unto you.'