Weak Hands and Feeble Knees

Spurgeon takes the image of "weak hands and feeble knees" as a picture of two critical Christian capacities — active service and earnest prayer — and argues that when these fail, the believer stops making spiritual progress, loses the power to accomplish anything for God's kingdom, and brings dishonor to Christ by treating his promises as untrustworthy. He traces the causes of this weakness: spiritual infancy that simply needs time and nourishment, starvation from preaching that is eloquent but empty of solid doctrine and makes no distinction between truth and error, the corrosive effects of doubt and fear that drain all strength from faith, and above all the widespread laziness of Christians who are content to occupy pews, pay their seat-rent, and call that their duty while never winning a soul, visiting the sick, or giving more than a token offering to God's cause. He closes by urging believers to act with whatever strength they have, use their service to build more strength, put their religion "out to usury" by giving it away, feed on solid doctrine, and above all cry to the Holy Spirit — since it is only on their knees that Christ's soldiers become truly invincible.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on March 20th, 1859.