Whispers of His Power – OCTOBER 2

2 Kings 2.19-21:  And the men of the city said unto Elisha… the water is naught, and the ground barren.  And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein.  And they brought it to him.  And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters;  there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.

All round the spring was ground which should have been fruitful, but the plants did not thrive.  They grew for a while, but did not come to fruit.  There was a general withering.

Suppose the spring had blamed the ground – ‘Such poor soil;  no use watering it’ – what would you have said?  But have we never done just that?  ‘Such difficult circumstances;  it is not my fault if things go wrong.  Such difficult people (or children), they aren’t improving at all.  I have spent ever so much time on them, and there is nothing to show for it?

The word about the spring was, The water is naught.  It might flow over the ground for ever, but nothing good would happen, for it was naught.  Our influence may flow for years over people, but it will make no difference to them unless the spring within us is sweet.  It must be healed from that quality which made it useless, and be turned into a source of life instead of death and barrenness.

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.