A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

Matthew 12:20

Yesterday we saw that Jesus heals the brokenhearted. Today we will see that He honors even our smallest of efforts to serve Him. And I don’t know about you but that is of great comfort to me. My efforts always seem to fall so short.

“Smoking flax” is the first light of the lamp in the new birth or the smallest of motions toward honoring God. The fruits of desire and action of righteousness may seem small but Jesus will not extinguish them. That light, though small, will never be put out by God!

So, we should not belittle the efforts of the weak. We should encourage them like God does.

Just as the gospel message should not threaten a bruised reed with breaking, it should encourage good works. The church should fan the flame of thankfulness for the finished work of Christ!

I believe we should be actively searching for a flicker of light in everyone around us. True, it is not in every person on earth, but I think it is more people than we realize!

The children of God we meet may not “have it all together” in their Christian walk. Often, we are waiting for them to get their lives cleaned up before we fellowship with them. This is not the approach we should take.

We should seek for those who have the smallest of flames of righteousness. And when we find it, we should fuel it with the gospel of the sovereign grace of God!

Let us not quench the smoking flax in judgment of outward appearance. Let us fan the flame of all our fellow children of God to the praise of the glory of His grace!