the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Acts 14:3—Granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (R.V.)
There is no source of encouragement more fruitful of help than the co-witness and co-working of the Holy Spirit. Those who are filled with the Spirit are called into communion, i.e., partnership, with Him in his work. they work from the outside, He works from within; they sow the seed, He waters it abundantly. We must be very careful to be such in character and teaching that He may cooperate with us. Our hands must be very clean, if He, with an infinite condescension, is to grant signs and wonders to be wrought by them. But when we work with Him, and He with us, the results are beyond measure astonishing, and his alone.
"We are now seven years in this land," wrote one of Gossner’s missionaries from the land of the Kohls in India; "but through these long years it was but trial of our patience and endurance.... Everything seemed to be in vain, and many said the mission was useless. Then the Lord Himself kindled a fire before our eyes; and it seized not only single souls, but spread from village to village; and from every side the question was borne to us, What shall we do? How shall we be saved? And I thought it was no more a heathen land I was in, but a Christian, and at home."
Deus habet horas et moras, says the old proverb. God has his seasons and delays. We do not at once see the result of our sowings, toils, and tears; but we are conscious that our work is with our God—we know that we have our petitions, and we rejoice in hope. We must go on uttering "the word of his grace"—the grace that chooses such rebels to be his children; that cleanses them from sin; that restores and keeps and sanctifies.
