We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. NLT

I often think about ‘Sting’s song ‘How fragile we are’. I first heard it while driving in my car early one morning, and it immediately resonated with me. We are indeed ‘fragile’. We may not always like to let it show, but in our depths we know it to be so.

We have seen:

  • We don’t preach about ourselves (5): Jesus Christ is Lord, and we are His servants. We know our place. We are not the message; we are the messengers. One of the ways some of us serve the Lord Jesus (if it is our calling) is by proclaiming Him. But we further see today:
  • We don’t serve in our own strength (7): It is self-evident that there is a fragility about us. We are like easily breakable ”clay jars”. In ourselves we are weak, but what God has put inside of us is so powerful. When people see, and hear, us doing what we can’t naturally do, people glorify the God who empowers us. ”But we have this treasure in earthenware pots, so that the extraordinary quality of the power may belong to God, not to us.” Tom Wright translation