The Test of Our Actions, October 11

Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.

Let us feel thankful that we have the privilege of committing our works to God. We are to remember that we are not pieces of inanimate mechanism, but intelligent beings, able to choose the right and refuse the wrong, with a clear conscience and a pure purpose. We are to aim at consistency in all our works.

We are to commit our way to the Lord, testing it by His searching laws. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5). We cannot commit our way to God if we are working out deeds of injustice. “If I regard iniquity in my heart,” the psalmist declares, “the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). When we commit our way to the Lord we are to search the heart through and through, casting out all evil, that Christ may fill it with His righteousness. We are to seek the Lord in prayer, putting at the beginning of our petitions repentance for sin….

God's law is the test of our actions. His eye sees every act, searches every chamber of the mind, detecting all lurking self-deception and all hypocrisy. All things are naked and open to the sight of Him with whom we have to do. But He will receive all who come to Him with contrite hearts and a true purpose to forsake every wrong….

In all our business transactions, in every word and deed, we are to maintain a pure purpose and a clear conscience. We are to commit our works to God and then leave them in His hands. Our work is to be done in the strictest integrity. Nothing is to be cherished that we cannot carry into the heavenly courts. As we labor let us ask God's help, realizing that this is the only thing that can keep our work free from selfishness…. Look upward with intense sincerity, for you need constant draughts of the refreshing air of heaven. We need to live in constant communion with our heavenly Father…. Perform your duties as if in the sight of a holy God.^{13Letter 406, 1906.}

Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | ellenwhite.org

God's Law Changeless and Eternal, October 10

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:17, 18.

If Satan's work had succeeded in heaven the law of God would have been changed, but this could not be, for His law was a transcript of His character and as unchangeable as His character. If any change was possible in the law of God it would have been made then and there and saved the rebellion in heaven. But as it was not altered to meet the request of Satan, he … lost his high and holy position in the heavenly courts.

After his fall he worked upon the minds of Adam and Eve and seduced them from their loyalty…. Now if the law of God could have been changed and altered to meet man in his fallen condition, then Adam would have been pardoned and retained his home in Eden; but the penalty of transgression was death, and Christ became man's substitute and surety. Then was the time, could the law of God have been changed, to have made this change and retained Christ in the heavenly courts, that the immense sacrifice made to save a fallen race might have been avoided. But no, the law of God was changeless in its character and therefore Christ gave Himself a sacrifice in behalf of fallen man, and Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation.

Had the law of God been changed in one precept since the expulsion of Satan from heaven, he would have gained on earth after his fall that which he could not gain in heaven before his fall. He would have received all that he asked for. We know that he did not…. The law … remains unalterable as the throne of God, and the salvation of every soul is determined by obedience or disobedience…. Jesus, by the law of sympathetic love, bore our sins, took our punishment, and drank the cup of the wrath of God apportioned to the transgressor…. He bore the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice for us, that we might have life, eternal life. Will we bear the cross for Jesus? ^{12Letter 110, 1896.}

Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | ellenwhite.org

Living Out God's Law, October 9

Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matthew 11:27.

Jesus came to represent the character of God in living out the holy law of Jehovah. In every lesson He gave to His disciples and to the people He sought to define clearly its principles. By personal obedience to the law He invested the common duties of life with a holy significance. He lived a man among men…. He lived among the people, He shared their poverty and their griefs. He dignified life in all its details by keeping before men the glory of God, and by subordinating everything to the will of His Father. His life was characterized by supreme love to God, and fervent love to His fellow men….

His life from its beginning to its close, was one of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Upon the cross of Calvary He made the great sacrifice of Himself in behalf of all men, that the whole world might have salvation if they would. Christ was hid in God, and God stood revealed to the world in the character of His Son….

Love for a lost world was manifested every day, in every act of His life. Those who are imbued by His Spirit will work in the same lines as those in which Christ worked. In Christ the light and love of God were manifested in human nature. No human being has ever possessed so sensitive a nature as did the sinless, holy One of God, who stood as head and representative of what humanity may become through the imparting of the divine nature. To those who believe in Christ as their personal Saviour, He imputes His merit and imparts His power. To those who come to Him with their burden of grief, disappointments, and trials, He will give rest and peace. It is through the grace of Christ that the soul sees his need of repentance toward God …, and is led to look to Christ by faith, realizing that His merit is efficacious to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him…. Let us open our hearts to receive the love which it is so essential that we should cultivate in order that we may fulfill the commandments of God.^{11The Youth's Instructor, August 16, 1894.}

Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | ellenwhite.org

The Price of Perfection, October 8

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10.

Christ's invitation to us all is a call to a life of peace and rest—a life of liberty and love, and to a rich inheritance in the future immortal life…. We need not be alarmed if this path of liberty is laid through conflicts and sufferings. The liberty we shall enjoy will be the more valuable because we made sacrifices to obtain it. The peace which passeth knowledge will cost us battles with the powers of darkness, struggles severe against selfishness and inward sins….

We cannot appreciate our Redeemer in the highest sense until we can see Him by the eye of faith reaching to the very depths of human wretchedness, taking upon Himself the nature of man, the capacity to suffer, and by suffering putting forth His divine power to save and lift sinners up to companionship with Himself. O why have we so little sense of sin? Why so little penitence? It is because we do not come nearer the cross of Christ. Conscience becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, because we remain away from Christ. Consider the Captain of our salvation. He suffered shame for us that we might not suffer everlasting shame and contempt. He suffered on the cross, that mercy might be granted to fallen man. God's justice is preserved, and guilty man is pardoned. Jesus dies that the sinner might live. Shame is borne by the Son of the Highest for the sake of poor sinners, that they might be ransomed and crowned with eternal glory….

We must hide self in Jesus Christ, and let Him appear in our conversation and character as the One altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand. Our lives, our deportment, will testify how highly we prize Christ and the salvation He has wrought out for us at such a cost to Himself. While we look constantly to Him whom our sins have pierced and our sorrows have burdened, we shall acquire strength to be like Him. We shall bind ourselves in willing, happy, captivity to Jesus Christ.^{10The Review and Herald, August 2, 1881.}

Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | ellenwhite.org

“I Have Prayed for Thee,” October 7

I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Luke 22:32.

To every Christian comes the word that was addressed to Peter, “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31, 32). Thank God we are not left alone. This is our safety. Satan can never touch with eternal disaster one whom Christ has prepared for temptation by His previous intercession, for grace is provided in Christ for every soul, and a way of escape has been made, so that no one need fall under the power of the enemy.

Satan is preparing many and strong temptations with which to assail the people of God. He is represented as walking to and fro like a roaring lion, seeking for some unguarded soul whom he may be successful in deceiving through his subtlety, and may finally destroy. We are not safe without Christ for a single step. But what comfort is treasured for us in the words, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”! Satan does not sift chaff; it is the wheat that he desires to have in his hands. Then let us take courage and pray at all times.

Christ offers our prayers to the Father, mingled with the merit of His sacrifice, and they come up before God as sweet incense…. Whenever you are tempted to sin remember that Christ's eye is upon you, and that Satan desires to have you that he may sift you as wheat. Remember to send your petitions heavenward, and see Jesus making intercession for you. Send up an earnest cry to God, “Lord, save me; I perish,” and you will not be overcome; you will not enter into sin. Take your stand firmly on the words of Paul, and in the strength of Jesus say, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).^{9The Youth's Instructor, December 20, 1894.}

Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | ellenwhite.org