Sunday Spurgeon

"I am the vine; you are the branches.
If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing."
- John 15:5

You can do nothing, not only is the higher duty beyond your power, but the lesser duty, too. You are not capable of performing the lowest act of the Divine life, except as you receive strength from God the Holy Spirit. And surely, my Brethren, it is generally in these little things that we find out most of all our weaknesses. Peter can walk the waves of the sea, but he cannot bear the jest of a little maid. Job can endure the loss of all things, but the upbraiding words of his false
friends, though they are but words and break no bones—make him speak far more bitterly than all the sore boils and pains which were in his very skin.

Jonah said he did well to be angry, even unto death, about a gourd. Have you not often heard that mighty men who have outlived hundreds of battles have been slain at last by the most trivial accident? And has it not been so with professed Christians? They stood uprightly in the midst of the greatest trials—they have outlived the most arduous struggles and yet, in an evil hour, trusting to themselves, their foot has slipped under some slight temptation, or because
of some small difficulty. John Newton says—“The Grace of God is as necessary to create a right temper in Christians on the breaking of a china plate as on the death of an only son.”

These little leaks need the most careful stopping. The plague of flies is no more easy to be stayed than that of the destroying angel. In little, as well as in great things, the just must live by faith. In trifles as well as in nobler exercises the Believer should be conscious of his own inability—should never say of any act, “Now I am strong enough to perform this. I need not go to God in prayer about this. This is so little a thing, it is beneath the dignity of God and I am quite sufficient for it of myself.” No, Believer, you are sufficient for nothing at all. Without Christ you can do nothing that is good, nothing that is right.