Whispers of His Power – FEBRUARY 14

2 Tim. 2.3: Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

‘Die hard, my men, die hard!’ shouted Col. Inglis to his men as they fought one of the fearful battles of the Peninsular War.  Fifteen thousand men were wounded or killed in four hours that day, and the regiment was known as the Diehards ever after.

Are we die-hards?  It is extraordinarily easy to soften.  Sometimes we hardly know that we are yielding till some little thing happens that we dislike, and we find ourselves unwilling or unable to go through with it.  If this be so, we are not die-hards.

Paul was a die-hard.  His whole life and above all his prison letters show that die-hard quality.  When he wrote to Timothy Endure hardness what he meant was Remain under it’.  Don’t slip from under it.  Don’t try to shuffle it off.  And hardness to him did not mean some trivial little trouble.  It meant to suffer evil.

How little we know of that.  But our Saviour knew all that ever could be known, and He endured to the end.

Are we in earnest in wanting to be His die-hards?  If so, let us take with confidence His word spoken on the Monday of Passion Week (Matt. 21.22): And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

oooOOOooo

These words are from ’Whispers of His Power’ a collection of writings that Amy Carmichael wrote for her ‘children’ and others associated with the Dohnavur Fellowship. and are Copyright © The Dohnavur Fellowship 1982

Unless otherwise stated, biblical quotations are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The following abbreviations are used to refer to other versions and sources:

BCP:               Book of Common Prayer, the Great Bible of Coverdale

Conybeare:       W. J. Conybeare, The Epistles of Paul (a translation)

Delitzsch:        F. Delitzsch, Notes on Job and the Psalms

Kay:                W. Kay, The Psalms (a translation)

LXX:              The Septuagint

Moffatt:           J. Moffatt, The New Testament: a new translation

Rotherham:      J. B. Rotherham, The Emphasized Bible Revised Version

RV:                 Revised Version

Way:              A. Way, The Letters of St Paul (a translation)

Westcott:        F. Westcott, Notes on the Gospel of St John

Weymouth:      R. F. Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech

Young:            R. Young, A Literal Translation of the Bible

Verses of poetry without quotation marks were written by Amy Carmichael.