NOT BY MIGHT NOR BY POWER

God works through weak and obscure instruments to do His work for Him. How often we look to the rich and famous to get the job done. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said:

“We Christians often quote ‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord’ (Zechariah 4:6b), and yet in practice we seem to rely on the mighty dollar and the power of the press and advertising and politics. We seem to think that our influence will depend on our technique and the program we can put forward and that it would be numbers, the largeness, the bigness that would prove effective. We seem to have forgotten that God has done most of His deeds throughout history through remnants. We seem to have forgotten the great story of Gideon, for instance, and how God insisted on reducing the 32,000 men down to 300 before He would make use of them. We have become fascinated by the idea of bigness, and we are quite convinced that if we can only stage, yes, that’s the word, stage something really big before the world, we will shake it and produce a mighty religious awakening. That seems to be the modern conception of authority.”

But as Jesus said, “What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15b). God does not look for powerful instruments but for instruments that can be wielded by His power. 

-- Adapted from “A Beacon in the Darkness: Reflecting God’s Light in Today’s World” by David Roper

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