I arrived at Colossians 1:11 one morning,
"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness..."
Madeline's paraphrase: "Enabled with miraculous power, according to the glorious power of Christ, which is without limit, unto all cheerful endurance and forbearance with calm delight."
"According to His glorious power" struck me that morning as I thought about Christ's marvelous power...that has NO limits! What manifold riches we have in Christ...but too often sorely neglect accessing. Ephesians 1 lists so many heavenly blessings we have in Christ and the scriptures are full of the rich promises that we have in Jesus as His children and as saints, but do I take full advantage of them? Too often, in my Christian walk, I have found myself seeking after earthly pleasures to satisfy a void in my heart, when Jesus Christ sits with all the fullness of the Godhead, desiring for me to access the manifold graces of my Lord.
"The End of a Coil", by Susan Warner, accounts the struggles of Dolly Copley to live a life pleasing to the Lord amidst family challenges. At one point in the book, after a specifically arduous trial, she is found by a friend, a non-Christian young man, with her Bible open, receiving from it what comfort scripture offers.
"Does that help?" said he, glancing at the book in Dolly's lap.
"This?" said Dolly. "What other help in the world is there?"
"Friends?" suggested Rupert.
"Yes, you were a great help last night," Dolly said slowly. "But there come times—and things—when friends cannot do anything."
"And then—what does the book do?"
"The book?" Dolly repeated again. "O Rupert! it tells of the Friend that can do everything!" Her eyes flushed with tears and she clasped her hands as she spoke.
"What?" said Rupert; for her action was eloquent, and he was curious; and besides he liked to make her talk.
Dolly looked at him and saw that the question was serious. She opened her book. "Listen. 'Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have; for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.'"
"That makes pretty close work of it. Can you get hold of that rope? and how much strain will it bear?"
"I believe it will bear anything," said Dolly slowly and thoughtfully; "if one takes hold with both hands. I guess the trouble with me is, that I only take hold with one."
"What do you do with the other hand?"
"Stretch it out towards something else, I suppose. For, see here, Rupert;—'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee.'—I am just ashamed of myself!" said Dolly, breaking down and bursting into tears.
"What for?" said Rupert.
"Because I do not trust so."
"I should think it would be very difficult."
"It ought not to be difficult to trust a friend whose truth you know. There! That has done me good," said the girl, sitting up and brushing away the tears.
I would suggest that we all can relate to the weakness that Dolly expresses. Oh, that we too would grasp "with both hands" to the abounding promises of Christ, not with wavering trust or with "only one hand", but with complete and absolute confidence in the character, and thus the promises of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Would we not dwell "outside the palace", eating what we can beg when there is a room in the castle reserved for us with riches and gifts beyond understanding.
"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." Psalm 27:13-14
"The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me." Psalm 116:6
His "glorious power" holds strong, it is a sure and steady rope to grasp.
