y to Reflect Christ’s Unfathomable Love
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32, NKJV.
Who can measure the love Christ felt for a lost world as He hung upon the cross,
suffering for the sins of the guilty? This love was immeasurable, infinite.
Christ has shown that His love was stronger than death. He was accomplishing
humanity’s salvation; and although He had the most fearful conflict with the powers of
darkness, yet, amid it all, His love grew stronger and stronger.... The price was paid to
purchase the redemption of men and women, when, in the last soul struggle, the blessed
words were uttered which seemed to resound through creation: “It is finished.” ...
The length, the breadth, the height, the depth, of such amazing love we cannot fathom.
The contemplation of the matchless depths of a Savior’s love should fill the mind, touch
and melt the soul, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole
character....
Some have limited views of the atonement. They think that Christ suffered only a small
portion of the penalty of the law of God; they suppose that, while the wrath of God was felt
by His dear Son, He had, through all His painful sufferings, the evidence of His Father’s
love and acceptance; that the portals of the tomb before Him were illuminated with bright
hope, and that He had the abiding evidence of His future glory. Here is a great mistake.
Christ’s keenest anguish was a sense of His Father’s displeasure. His mental agony because
of this was of such intensity that many can have but faint conception of it....
Here is love that no language can express. It passes knowledge. Great is the mystery
of godliness. Our souls should be enlivened, elevated, and enraptured with the theme of
the love of the Father and the Son to humanity. The followers of Christ should here learn
to reflect in some degree that mysterious love preparatory to joining all the redeemed in
ascribing “blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, ... unto him that sitteth upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”—Testimonies for the Church 2:212-215.
19
Gain Spiritual Strength Through Prayer
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and
departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35, NKJV.
Because the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion,
His service for heaven was without failure or faltering. Daily beset by temptation,
constantly opposed by the leaders of the people, Christ knew that He must strengthen His
humanity by prayer. In order to be a blessing to people, He must commune with God, from
Him obtaining energy, perseverance, steadfastness.
The Savior loved the solitude of the mountain in which to hold communion with His
Father. Through the day He labored earnestly to save men, women, and children from
destruction. He healed the sick, comforted the mourning, called the dead to life, and
brought hope and cheer to the despairing. After His work for the day was finished, He went
forth, evening after evening, away from the confusion of the city, and bowed in prayer to
His Father. Frequently He continued His petitions through the entire night; but He came
from these seasons of communion invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and for trial.
Are the ministers of Christ tempted and fiercely buffeted by Satan? So also was He
who knew no sin. In the hour of distress He turned to His Father. Himself a source of
blessing and strength, He could heal the sick and raise the dead; He could command the
tempest, and it would obey Him; yet He prayed, often with strong crying and tears. He
prayed for His disciples and for Himself, thus identifying Himself with human beings. He
was a mighty petitioner. As the Prince of life, He had power with God, and prevailed....
Those who teach and preach the most effectively are those who wait humbly upon
God, and watch hungrily for His guidance and His grace. Watch, pray, work—this is the
Christian’s watchword. The life of a true Christian is a life of constant prayer. He knows
that the light and strength of one day is not sufficient for the trials and conflicts of the next.
Satan is continually changing his temptations. Every day we shall be placed in different
circumstances; and in the untried scenes that await us we shall be surrounded by fresh
dangers, and constantly assailed by new and unexpected temptations. It is only through
the strength and grace gained from heaven that we can hope to meet the temptations and
perform the duties before us.—Gospel Workers, 255-258.
20
Plead for Wisdom and Power
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1, 2, NKJV.
Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high were not thereby freed
from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth and righteousness they were
repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth, who sought to rob them of their Christian
experience. They were compelled to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the
measure of the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Daily they prayed for fresh
supplies of grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection.
Under the Holy Spirit’s working even the weakest, by exercising faith in God, learned
to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined, and ennobled. As in
humility they submitted to the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, they received of the
fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned in the likeness of the divine.
The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ’s parting promise to send the Holy
Spirit as His representative. It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the
riches of His grace do not flow earthward to humanity. If the fulfillment of the promise is
not seen as it might be, it is because the promise is not appreciated as it should be. If all were
willing, all would be filled with the Spirit. Wherever the need of the Holy Spirit is a matter
little thought of, there is seen spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and
death. Whenever minor matters occupy the attention, the divine power which is necessary
for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in
its train, is lacking, though offered in infinite plenitude....
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Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help, for heavenly
wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should they pray
that God will baptize His chosen ambassadors in mission fields with a rich measure of His
Spirit. The presence of the Spirit with God’s workers will give the proclamation of truth
a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give.—The Acts of the Apostle