The Bruised Reed and the Smoking Flax (4)

He will not show his strength against those who prostrate themselves before him.
(1) What should we learn from this, but to 'come boldly to the throne of grace' (Heb. 4:16)? Will our sins discourage us when he appears there only for sinners? Be of good comfort, he calls you. Conceal not your wounds, open all before him and take not Satan's counsel. Go to Christ, although trembling, as the poor woman who said, 'If I may but touch his garment' (Matt. 9:21). Never fear to go to God, since we have such a Mediator with him, who is not only our friend but our brother and husband. Well might the angel proclaim from heaven, 'Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy' (Luke 2:10). His presence makes any condition comfortable. 'Be not afraid,' he said to his disciples, when they were afraid, as if they had seen a ghost, 'It is I' (Matt. 14:27), as if there were no cause of fear where he was present.
(2) Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ's way is first to wound, then to heal. No sound, whole soul will ever enter into heaven. Think when in temptation, Christ was tempted for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces.
(3) See the contrary disposition of Christ on the one hand and Satan and his instruments on the other. Satan sets upon us when we are weakest, as Simeon and Levi upon the Shechemites, ‘when they were sore' (Gen. 34:25). But Christ will make up in us all the breaches which sin and Satan have made. He 'binds up the broken hearted' (Isa. 61:1). As a mother is tenderest to the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest. The consciousness of the church's weakness makes her willing to lean on her beloved, and to hide herself under his wing.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Bruised Reed, pp. 9-10
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