By F. B. Meyer
When the disciple whom Jesus loved fell at His feet as one dead; when the church at Smyrna needed encouragement to remain faithful unto death; when spirits athirst for God cry out for the living water; when the way has to be opened through the gates of the city to the Tree of Life, Jesus quotes, in part or as a whole, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Rev. 22:13).
The very pressing question of this hour is to ascertain whether each of us is making enough of personal contact with Christ. We hear about Him, read of Him, talk about Him, but how far do we really know Him? Might He not say rather sadly to some of us, as to Philip: “Have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?” (John 14:9). On the other hand, Paul said: “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord…that I may know Him…” (Phil. 3:8-10).
Very often God allows our helplessness and failure to become extraordinarily acute in order that His grace may have a larger opportunity. It is only when we have reached our greatest extremity that we begin to realize what Jesus is prepared to be and do.
It was only when Sennacherib came against Jerusalem with scaling ladders and the full equipment for capturing a fortified city that Isaiah and Hezekiah discovered that God was prepared to be a “place of broad rivers and streams” (Isa. 33:21), and that there was a river – the river of His protecting care – which could make glad the city of God. Of course, there was no literal river; but God made good that lack, and Himself became all that a river could have been. He was thus the complement of their need!
It was only when Ezra, on the return of the Jews to their own land, halted at the river Ahava, that he awoke to the peril of crossing the great wilderness, inhabited by robber tribes. But in answer to united prayer, God promised to go before the procession, and become its rear-guard. Jehovah Himself became the complement of their need! They would not have realized what He could do for them in this direction had they been fully defended by bands of soldiers.
The sisters of Bethany would never have known the Master’s imperial glory as the Resurrection and the Life, had mortal sickness not overtaken Lazarus and carried him to his grave. In their dire sorrow and distress, Jesus became their complement as the Resurrection and the Life. In after years they were glad to have had such a sorrow, which left them enriched forever with that unexpected revelation.
Loneliness constitutes a claim on Him. If you had not experienced it, you would not have learned what He can be and do when He draws near, saying, “Fear not.” He will not leave you orphaned, He will come to you. Though lover and friend forsake, and you are passing through a dark valley unattended, the Good Shepherd will accompany you, armed with a crook to help you out of pitfalls, and a club for your foes.
If we were perfectly supplied from ourselves, we should never know what Christ can be. Oh, blessed absence of self-sufficiency! We shall never be self-contained, never able to dispense with Christ!
The All-Sufficiency of Christ by F. B. Meyer
Life on the Altar Issue 3 Winter 2021
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 