Thomas Manton, “Sermons Upon Mark 10:17-27” in Works, v.17
The less power we have in ourselves, the more experience we have of God’s power: Isa. 40:29, ‘He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.’ So Deut. 32:36, ‘The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.’ When human help begins to fail and is spent, then God’s power is seen. The lean cheeks, and the faint voice, and the pale colour of a hunger-starved beggar moves more than all the canting entreaties of a sturdy one. When we are sufficiently humbled in the sense of our own unworthiness, and can entirely cast ourselves upon God, out of a confidence of his power, help will not be far off, for he really pities those that are indeed miserable, and have a sense of it, and sets his power on work for their relief.