January 8

If the provisions were left in our own hands, we would soon be bankrupt merchants. God knows we are weak, like cracked pitchers-- if filled to the brim and set aside, the contents would soon leak out. So He puts us under a flowing fountain of His strength and constantly refills us. This was the provision He made for Israel in the wilderness: He split the rock, and not only was their thirst quenched at that moment, but the water ran in a stream after them, so that you hear no more complaints for water. This rock was Christ. Every believer has Christ at his back, following him as he goes, with strength for every condition and trial.

The Christian ought to rely on divine strength because this plan results in the greatest advancement of God's own glory (Ephesians 1:4, 12). If God had given you a lifetime supply of His grace to begin with and left you to handle your own account, you would have thought Him generous indeed. But He is magnified even more by the open account He sets up in your name. Now you must acknowledge not only that your strength comes from God in the first place, but that you are continually in debt for every withdrawal of strength you make throughout your Christian course.

When a child travels with his parents, all his expenses are covered by his father-- not himself. Likewise, no saint shall say of heaven when he arrives there, "This is heaven, which I have built by the power of my own might." No, the heavenly Jerusalem is a city "whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Every grace is a stone in a building, the topstone of which is laid in glory. Some day the saints shall plainly see how God was not only the founder to begin, but benefactor also to finish the same. The glory of the work will not be crumbled out piecemeal, some to God and some to the creature. All will be entirely credited to God.

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