Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?day=6&id=devotion&month=8
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses. Acts 1:8
I managed to stifle back the tears while on the ward. But as soon as I walked into the corridor, the dam broke, and I went quickly to my office to work it out of my system. I had grown to know Mr 'B' quite well over the months he was with us, and now suddenly he had died. Moreover, his was the ninth death on my ward that week. Though, when working on a cancer unit, one becomes accustomed to sudden death, this particular week had exacted a very heavy emotional toll. I could not suppress my feelings any longer, and I wept unashamedly.
Was I wrong in that? There are many today who tell us that as Christians we should be above such things; that we should be perpetually-praising, constantly-clapping, unceasingly-smiling, 'Allelujah-all the way' ambassadors of the Gospel, with never a wrinkle on our brow. I am sure this attitude is a very distorted one, and Scripture teaches us that witness is more than skin-deep.
Jesus tells us that witness is not a technique to master or an act to perform, 'You shall be witnesses unto me', he told his disciples. We do not primarily bear witness to what a blessed state it is to be a Christian (though indeed it is!), but to Christ himself, and to what he means to us not only in our triumphs and joys, but in our pains and fears as well. As Prof John White writes in The Fight, 'You have nothing to hide. The truth itself is infinitely more powerful than the filtered version of the truth that your vanity might prefer'.
I know a young woman doctor, now a senior house officer in pathology, who as a medical student became a Christian through the power of such an unfiltered witness. A friend of hers (not a medic incidentally!) who had spoken many times about Christ, hit a very rough patch -- her parents' marriage was on the rocks, and she herself had recently broken up with her boyfriend. As the parents' inevitable divorce eventually went through, the hurt was obvious and very deep. Yet as my friend expressed it, 'she held together. her faith was unshaken and I could see that Jesus Christ was real in her whole being'. It wasn't just words.
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 4:20 that the kingdom of God is not just a matter of talk but of power. May we know (as did those early disciples in Acts 1) the power of the Holy Spirit upon us in every aspect of our lives as we bear witness today to him.
Since we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show
that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to
us (2 Cor 4:7), Lord, please may your power be present
in me, your vessel today.
Further reading: Acts 1:6-11. 1 Cor 1:26-31. 2 Cor 12:9-10.
TGS
