Strength for Today, January 30

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34.

Edson, temptations will come to me and to you. I have been struggling with the tempter for some time, but I will not give the enemy the victory. It is my privilege to have perfect faith and confidence in God. Jesus of Nazareth was above all others the Son of man…. Christ is the pattern of what the Lord would have us become….

I have been tempted, sorely tempted, as I see how little many who profess to love God are really loving Him. Our obedience to His commandments testifies whether we are indeed children of God. We are inclined to worry at the outlook of things transpiring in our world. All the forces of the powers of darkness are working against the human race to restrict religious liberty and to compel service and the worshiping of an idol Sabbath. God knows all about the outcome.

I am so glad the Father understands every phase of the difficulties we shall have to meet. Believing Him and knowing Him to be God, we know that He sees with a larger vision than is possible for us. His ideals are higher than any of our conceptions. He can read every purpose of hearts that are leaguing against God, and cooperating with the evil angels to overthrow the righteous. All the forces of evil angels combined with evil men will be in action to suppress truth and liberty to believe truth. We will not fail now in our work; we will not be discouraged. Every question is open as the day to the Heart Searcher. He sees the effort made to influence a child in the wrong direction. The high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity will not overlook the one who would work counter to His will in tainting and corrupting human minds. We must consider that God knows, God understands….

Children, do not limit the Holy One of Israel in your individual cases. You can be connected with God. Grow in faith and trust and unshaken confidence in God. The Lord hath done much for you, my children, and your own selves given to the Lord without reserve will make you channels of light. As you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all things else shall be added unto you. Godliness hath promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come. As you receive the rich grace of God you will diffuse it. The faithful discharge of today's duties will be the best preparation for tomorrow's trials. We will not gather together all tomorrow's liabilities and cares to add unto the burdens of today. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. God gives us strength for each day.—Letter 141, January 30, 1896, to Edson and Emma White.

Forgiving Freely, January 29

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21, 22.

If the Lord should deal with the human family as men deal with one another, we should have been consumed; but He is long-suffering, of tender pity, forgiving our transgressions and sins. When we seek Him with the whole heart, He will be found of us….

Christ is our sin-bearer, one who constantly pardons iniquity and sin. Mercy, forbearance, long-suffering, is the glory of His character. When Moses prayed to the Lord, saying, “Show me Thy glory,” He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass before thee.” The question that Peter asked of Christ was suggested to him by the lessons that Christ had previously given in regard to church discipline.

The Jewish precepts enjoined upon men the duty of forgiving five offenses, and Peter thought that in suggesting seven times he had reached the limit of human patience. But Jesus would have him understand that those who have the divine mind, and were imbued with the divine spirit, would exercise forgiveness without limit. The plan and ground of salvation, which is love, is the principle which must be carried out by [the] human family. Should Christ limit His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness by a certain number of sins, how few men would be saved!

But the mercy of Christ in forgiving the iniquities of men teaches us that there must be free forgiveness of wrongs and sins that are committed against us by our fellow men. Christ gave this lesson to His disciples to correct the evils that were being taught and practiced in the precepts and examples of those who were interpreting the Scriptures at that time.

The principle upon which Christ acted in seeking the recovery of the human family through the plan of salvation was the very same principle that must actuate His followers in their dealings one with another when brought into church capacity. The lesson was also to impress upon our minds the fact that we cannot reach heaven by our own merits, but only through the wonderful mercy and forbearance of God which is exercised toward us who can in no way render an equivalent.

Man can be saved only through the wonderful forbearance of God in the forgiveness of his many sins and transgressions. But those who are blessed by the mercy of God should exercise the same spirit of forbearance and forgiveness toward those who constitute the Lord's family.—Letter 30, January 29, 1895, to “Brother Hardy.”

The Keeping Power of God, January 28

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:28.

Jesus appreciates the efforts of every tried and tempted soul. Please take in the precious words of invitation that have been spoken to you by Jesus. Christ alone can place a proper estimate upon the human soul. Those who strive for the crown of immortal life will find that the forces of Satan are arrayed against them, but remember that we are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). We are living in the last time, and Satan is now working with masterly power in order that with subtle temptations he may overcome those who believe in Jesus. But we are to be “kept by the power of God”; therefore, in temptation give glory to God who is able and will keep the believing soul so that he shall not be overcome by the wily foe….

The crafty deceiver has been found to be an accuser, a liar, a tormentor and a murderer; but whatever he may have led others to say concerning you, the Lord can say to him as He said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” He can say to him, “You shall not come in between this soul and Me. You shall not interpose yourself between Me and the soul for whom I died a ransom.” It is for you, my tempted sister, to dismiss Satan with his temptations, and to take Jesus. Press close to Jesus, and place your hand in His, and He will firmly hold your hand, and never let go of the soul who maintains his faith in Him….

Living faith in the power of Jesus Christ, not in your own efficiency and wisdom, will bring you through every difficulty and temptation. Patiently wait, watch, and pray, and hold fast to the promises. However much your enemies have bruised and wounded your soul, forgive them, and by maintaining faith in Christ, you will find Him to be to you as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land…. Endure the pressure. Submit to wrong, bear the suffering part of religion for Christ's sake, rather than sin against God by seeking to deliver yourself….

Cannot you be a partaker with Christ in His sufferings? Cannot you endure to have your name cast out as evil, and suffer the loss of temporal interest? You may be falsely accused, but bear in mind that Jesus bore all this for you, and faint not at tribulation. Overcome evil with good. Do not become bitter and estranged from Jesus. He loves you. Put your trust in Him….

Jesus sees the soul who is tempted, and to the broken and contrite heart, the submissive spirit, He imparts grace and soothing consolation.—Letter 32, January 28, 1894, to “Miss Hartman.”

Our Long-suffering God, January 27

The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Exodus 34:6, 7.

How grateful we should be that the Lord is slow to anger! What a wonderful thought it is, that Omnipotence puts a restraint upon His mighty power! But because the Lord is forbearing and long-suffering, the human heart often manifests a tendency to venture presumptuously to add sin to sin! … “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Instead of God's patience hardening the sinner to continual transgression, it should lead him to determine to seek God's forgiveness, in order that the figures standing against his account in the heavenly record may be canceled….

Satan is the originator of evil. He swerved from his allegiance to God. Those who persisted in sympathizing with him in his disaffection were, with him, shut out of heaven. Implacable hatred against God fills Satan's mind. Persistently he has used his influence to efface from the human family God's image, and in its place to stamp his own satanic image. His effort to deceive our first parents was successful. Made in the image of God, the human family lost their innocence, became transgressors, and as disloyal subjects began their downward career. Satan gained control of man's power of action. Through the senses he influenced the mind.

Thus it has been from the beginning of the world. Instead of remaining under God's influence, in order that he might reflect the moral image of his Creator, man placed himself under the control of Satan's influence and was made selfish. Thus sin became a universal evil. And what a dreadful evil is sin!

Yielding to Satan's suggestions, our first parents opened the floodgates of evil upon the world. The questionable principles of the father and the mother of the human race influenced some of those with whom they associated. The evil that began in Paradise has extended down through the ages. Although Adam and Eve related with sorrow to their children the sad story of the Fall, their family became a divided family. Cain chose to serve Satan, Abel to serve God. Cain killed his brother Abel, because he would not follow his example.

That the world might not be destroyed because of its moral pollution, God undertook His great work of salvation, sending His Son to this earth to redeem mankind.—Manuscript 55, January 27, 1902, “The Long-Sufferance of God.”

Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves, January 26

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16.

Men are inspired by Satan to execute his purposes against God. The Lord has said, “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations” (Exodus 31:13). None should disobey this command in order to escape persecution. But let all consider the words of Christ, “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another” (Matthew 10:23). If it can be avoided, do not put yourselves into the power of men who are worked by the spirit of antichrist. If the payment of a fine will deliver our brethren from the hands of these oppressors, let it be paid…. Everything that we can do should be done that those who are willing to suffer for the truth's sake may be saved from oppression and cruelty.

We have the history of religious persecution from the fall of Adam down to the present time. How much of cruelty, perfidy, and corrupt intrigue is revealed. Satan is still leading men to strive for the mastery over other minds, and all this striving is designed to counterwork a “Thus saith the Lord.”

Christ died a victim to the mob spirit created by the religious prejudice of His own nation. Others will suffer in like manner. But they will not have to stand under the curse of the transgression of the law of God, as did Christ in behalf of the sinful world….

The Lord encourages all who seek Him with the whole heart. He gives them His Holy Spirit, the manifestation of His presence and favor. But those who forsake God in order to save their lives will be forsaken by Him. In seeking to save their lives by yielding the truth, they will lose eternal life.

Natural affection for relatives and friends should not lead any soul who sees the light to reject the light, to dishonor God the Father and Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Every possible excuse for disobedience will be framed by men who choose, as many did in Christ's day, the favor of men rather than the favor of God. If one chooses wife or children, father or mother, before Christ, that choice will stand through eternal ages, with all its weight of responsibility….

The greater man's influence for good, under the control of the Spirit of God, the more determined will be the enemy to indulge his envy and jealousy toward him by religious persecution. But all heaven is on the side of Christ, not of antichrist. Those who love God and are willing to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings, God will honor.—Manuscript 9, January 26, 1900, “Our Duty Under Persecution.”