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經文：「你這蟲雅各...不要害怕...我要使你成為有快齒打糧的新器具。」（賽41:14-15） 蟲與快齒的器具怎麼可能比較呢？蟲是多麼脆弱，被石頭或車輪一壓就會變成稀爛；而快齒的器具是多麼堅硬，甚至能「把山嶺打得粉碎，使岡陵如同糠秕。」（賽41:15）但是全能的神能使弱小的蟲成為快齒的器具。祂能使個人或民族，藉著祂的靈，從小蟲的脆弱變為器具般剛強，在歷史上留下深遠的痕跡。 所以我們不要喪膽，全能的神能使我們在四圍患難的環境中變成剛強。靠著祂的力量，我們能叫環境向我們屈服進貢。甚至能順手抓住一個黑色的失望又將它劈開，從其中抽出恩典的寶石來。神也能給我們像鐵那般的意志，可以將所有的難處迎刃而解，猶如鐵犛將堅土鬆散。神既是說：「我要使你...」祂豈會不如此行呢？--Dr. Jowett 基督的國度，是用地上破碎的東西建造成的。人要的是強健、成功、勝利、不碎的；但是神要的乃是在地上不成功、失敗、傷心、軟弱的。天上充滿著地上破碎的生命，沒有一根壓傷的蘆葦是基督不能恢復的。祂能使一個被痛苦與憂愁壓傷的生命，變成一架能奏出讚美之聲的古琴。神能把地上的失敗變成天上的榮耀。--J.R.Miller 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob...I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth" (Isa. 41:14-15). Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time. And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God's strength we can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. "I will make thee," and shall He not do it? --Dr. Jowett Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's glory. --J. R. Miller ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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