"A bruised reed He [Christ] will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench . . . "
Do you feel sometimes (or even oftentimes) like "smoking flax," or a "bruised reed"? You have life, but it has ebbed so low that you wonder if it is still viable. Take heart. Every regenerated churchman will have low times; but their light (and life) will never completely go out, or be dissolved.
God sometimes allows His children to experience faint pulsations of spiritual life, in order to "kick-start" them to something much better. We should never be content with being "barely alive"; and we should seek grace in Christ to be more fully "fanned into flame"--but, at the same time, we should never despair (of anything). As we are in Christ (and His church) we are ultimately safe, and successful.
[Puritan quote of the day: "The way to keep the enemy [Satan] out of our country, is to fall upon [attack] his." --William Bridge, in "A Lift-
ing Up for the Downcast"]
