In this first message of 2022, Lewis Roderick takes us to words that have brought comfort to weary saints for centuries.

Are you bruised? There’s many reasons why you may be. But Jesus has made you a promise: he will not break you.

More than that; if you come to him, he will heal you.

During the message Lewis referenced Alan Noble’s blog on Robin Williams’ death. You can read the full article here christandpopculture.com/existence-becomes-seemingly-impossible/

And he closed by quoting Richard Sibbes’ masterpiece, The Bruised Reed. You can find that here banneroftruth.org/uk/store/christian-living/the-bruised-reed/

If you’ve never read Sibbes before, he’s well worth the time. An Anglican Theologian from the late 1500s/ early 1600s, Sibbes wrote during the time of the Puritans and devoted much of his time to studying scripture. He wrote the Bruised Reed as a study of Isaiah 42:3 to point bruised Christians back to their tender-hearted Saviour.

Here’s our five favourite quotes from The Bruised Reed:

“What a comfort this is in our conflicts with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not “quench the smoking flax” until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back “all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, “You are a great sinner.” We may answer, “Christ is a strong Saviour.” But he will object, “You have no faith, no love”. “Yes, a spark of faith and love.” “But Christ will not regard that.” “Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax.” “But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to nought.” “Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.”

“What a support to our faith is this, that God the Father, the party offended by our sins, is so well pleased with the work of redemption! And what a comfort is this, that, seeing God’s love rests on Christ, as well pleased in him, we may gather that he is as well pleased with us, if we be in Christ!”

“From our own strength we cannot bear the least trouble, but by the Spirit’s assistance we can bear the greatest.

“Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect his strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies.”

“God sees fit that we should taste of that cup of which his Son drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son’s love was. But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will succor us, so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of his displeasure which we may feel. He became not only a man but a curse, a man of sorrows, for us. He was broken that we should not be broken; he was troubled, that we should not be desperately troubled; he became a curse, that we should not be accursed. Whatever may be wished for in an all sufficient comforter is all to be found in Christ.”