James Nisbet Commentary - Galatians 6:9 - 6:9

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

James Nisbet Commentary - Galatians 6:9 - 6:9


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE CURE FOR WEARINESS

‘Let us not be weary in well-doing.’

Gal_6:9

There may be some here whose hearts are heavy on account of failure, who can remember that in former years they have made good resolutions and laid down some special rule of self-discipline. They now feel that they achieved no lasting result, and they are sorely tempted to say that there is no use in trying again, for it only ends in disappointment and failure.

I. St. Paul gives us the keynote of hope and perseverance.—‘Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.’ He reminds us of the need of energy and courage and hope, and tells us of the certainty of final victory if only we go steadily on, trusting less in self and more in the grace of God.

II. If there be sometimes depression and disappointment in the spiritual life, it is the lot still more of those who live without God in the world.—The question is, What sort of weariness will you have? The fatigue of work well done, which has its reward in rest, or that weariness which comes from the pursuit of vanity? Surely it is well to be weary if it brings us to rest beneath the cross, if it makes us listen to the voice of love. But there is a kind of weariness which is hard to bear, a weariness in which we can claim the sympathy of our Lord, when our efforts for others seem to fail, when the harder we try the less we seem to succeed. If there be a mother here who has often poured out her heart to God in prayer for a wandering child, if there be a wife who has striven hard to win her husband to God, or a man who has prayed for his friend, you must not give it up, you must not suppose that your prayers are lost. Behind that cloud of silence and uncertainty there is the boundless love of God waiting to bless you for your efforts and to give you the answer for which you long, or it may be something better still.

III. Another more personal form of weariness and disappointment is when we find that the evil within us is still strong, that the old temptations have still a power to allure, that we have still the root of an old besetting sin. We must not expect that an evil habit which has perhaps been growing for years can be shaken off at once by one impulsive effort or by the strength of one resolution. Remember the expression used in the New Testament to describe the process by which we gain self-mastery; it is a very strong and significant one: we are to crucify the flesh. Now crucifixion was a slow, lingering, painful death. And the figure seems to tell us that our battle with sin must be a long one, and will not soon be over. But, thank God, the final issue is certain if only we are faithful and true.

—
Archdeacon R. Stewart.

Illustration

‘There is no such thing as failure in the works of God. God permits our works to seem to fail, to try our patience, to prove our faith, to encourage us to prayer, to make us more earnest in His work, lest if He were to grant us too large a measure of success, we should, as in the days of our temporal prosperity, forget the God Who gives us our wealth, and attribute it to the efforts of our own hands—accept the gift, but forget the Giver. No; then let no failures, real or apparent—real, I think, there cannot be; apparent, there ever will be—let no failures ever enter into our minds; let us simply do God’s work in God’s name, with prayer for God’s blessing, and be assured of this, that in good time we shall reap if we faint not.’