Mark Burgin spoke this morning from 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18, verses which remind us that God’s treasure is stored in earthen vessels (jars of clay.) How can people contain the power of God? It is a mystery, but God tells us that His Holy Spirit lives within us; He entrusts His treasure to our human frailty. We may often feel at the end of ourselves (hard-pressed, perplexed and so on), but actually there is a constraining power within us that enables us to carry on so that we are not crushed. We may feel we have no resources to meet the demands made upon us, but we need not despair because there is always hope in God. God’s power within us means we do not lose heart; we have spiritual sustenance.
The power of God is greater than any external power; it is a power that gives us hope even in trials (1 Pet 1:6). If we have hope, then we can slow down in our busy lives; there is no longer the same hurry to get everything done, because we realise not everything depends on us. Society is desperate to rest but dare not, feeling everything depends on us; God’s people, however, can rest in hope and can live in hope. Isaiah reminds us that hope does not disappoint us (Is 49:23) and therefore we have the inner strength to face whatever life may throw at us.
