Chapter 39—Earnestness of Purpose
When the four Hebrew youth were receiving an education for the
king’s court in Babylon, they did not feel that the blessing of the Lord
was a substitute for the taxing effort required of them. They were
diligent in study; for they discerned that through the grace of God
their destiny depended upon their own will and action. They were to
bring all their ability to the work; and by close, severe taxation of
their powers they were to make the most of their opportunities for
study and labor.
Co-operation with God
While these youth were working out their own salvation, God
was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here
are revealed the conditions of success. To make God’s grace our
own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform
for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work
in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. Our
souls are to be aroused to co-operate. The Holy Spirit works in us,
that we may work out our own salvation. This is the practical lesson
the Holy Spirit is striving to teach us. “It is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
The Lord will co-operate with all who earnestly strive to be
faithful in His service, as He co-operated with Daniel and his three
[148] companions. Fine mental qualities and a high tone of moral character
are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success
depends upon the use made of them. The openings of Providence
must be quickly discerned and eagerly entered. There are many who
might become mighty men, if, like Daniel, they would depend upon
God for grace to be overcomers, and for strength and efficiency to
do their work.
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Earnestness of Purpose 135
Whole-hearted Service
I address you, young men: Be faithful. Put heart into your work.
Imitate none who are slothful, and who give divided service. Actions,
often repeated, form habits, habits form character. Patiently perform
the little duties of life. So long as you undervalue the importance
of faithfulness in the little duties, your character-building will be
unsatisfactory. In the sight of Omnipotence, every duty is important.
The Lord has said, “He that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful also in much.” In the life of a true Christian there are no
non-essentials.
Many who claim to be Christians are working at cross-purposes
with God. Many are waiting for some great work to be brought to
them. Daily they lose opportunities for showing their faithfulness to
God; daily they fail of discharging with whole-heartedness the little
duties of life, which seem to them uninteresting. While waiting for
some great work in which they may exercise their supposedly great
talents, and thus satisfy their ambitious longings, their life passes
away.
My dear young friends, do the work that lies nearest at hand.
Turn your attention to some humble line of effort within your reach. [149]
Put mind and heart into the doing of this work. Force your thoughts
to act intelligently on the things that you can do at home. Thus you
will be fitting yourself for greater usefulness. Remember that of
King Hezekiah it is written: “In every work that he began, ... he did
it with all his heart, and prospered.”
The Value of Concentration
The ability to fix the thoughts on the work in hand is a great
blessing. God-fearing youth should strive to discharge their duties
with thoughtful consideration, keeping the thoughts in the right
channel, and doing their best. They should recognize their present
duties, and fulfill them without allowing the mind to wander. This
kind of mental discipline will be helpful and beneficial throughout
life. Those who learn to put thought into everything they undertake,
however small the work may appear, will be of use in the world.
136 Messages to Young People
Dear youth, be earnest, be persevering. “Gird up the loins of
your mind.” Stand like Daniel, the faithful Hebrew, who purposed
in his heart to be true to God. Do not disappoint your parents and
friends. And there is Another to be remembered. Do not disappoint
Him who so loved you that He gave His life to make it possible for
you to be co-laborers with God.
The Highest Motive
The desire to honor God should be to us the most powerful of
all motives. It should lead us to make every exertion to improve the
[150] privileges and opportunities provided for us, that we may understand
how to use wisely the Lord’s goods. It should lead us to keep
brain, bone, muscle, and nerve in the most healthful condition, that
our physical strength and mental clearness may make us faithful
stewards. Selfish interest, if given room to act, dwarfs the mind and
hardens the heart; if allowed to control, it destroys moral power.
Then disappointment comes....
True success is given to men and women by the God who gave
success to Daniel. He who read the heart of Daniel looked with
pleasure upon His servant’s purity of motive, his determination to
honor the Lord. Those who in their life fulfill God’s purpose must put
forth painstaking effort, applying themselves closely and earnestly to
the accomplishment of whatever He gives them to do.—The Youth’s
Instructor, August 20, 1903.
Abiding Joy
And all the way up the steep road leading to eternal life are wellsprings
of joy to refresh the weary. Those who walk in wisdom’s
ways are, even in tribulation, exceeding joyful; for He whom their
soul loveth walks, invisible, beside them. At each upward step they
discern more distinctly the touch of His hand; at every step brighter
gleamings of glory from the Unseen fall upon their path; and their
songs of praise, reaching ever a higher note, ascend to join the songs
of angels before the throne.—Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing,
[151] 140.
Chapter 40—Exercise of the Will
Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing
power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its
sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding
power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God,
or unto disobedience.
Instability and Doubt
You are a young man of intelligence; you desire to make your
life such as will fit you for heaven at last. You are often discouraged
at finding yourself weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and
controlled by the habits and customs of your old life in sin. You find
your emotional nature untrue to yourself, to your best resolutions,
and to your most solemn pledges. Nothing seems real. Your own
instability leads you to doubt the sincerity of those who would do you
good. The more you struggle in doubt, the more unreal everything
looks to you, until it seems that there is no solid ground for you
anywhere. Your promises are like ropes of sand, and you regard in
the same unreal light the words and works of those in whom you
should trust.
Strength Through Yielding the Will
You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of
the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises
or your faith are of no value until you put your will on the side of faith [152]
and action. If you fight the fight of faith with all your will-power,
you will conquer. Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions,
are not to be trusted, for they are not reliable, especially with your
perverted ideas; and the knowledge of your broken promises and
your forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in yourself, and the
faith of others in you.
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138 Messages to Young People
But you need not despair. You must be determined to believe,
although nothing seems true and real to you. I need not tell you it
is yourself that has brought you into this unenviable position. You
must win back your confidence in God and in your brethren. It is
for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you
do this, God will immediately take possession, and work in you to
will and to do of His good pleasure. Your whole nature will then
be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; and even your
thoughts will be subject to Him.
You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may
desire, but you can control the will, and you can make an entire
change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will
be hid with Christ in God, and allied to the power which is above
all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that
will hold you fast to His strength; and a new light, even the light of
living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must co-operate
with God’s will, not with the will of associates through whom Satan
[153] is constantly working to ensnare and destroy you.
Will you not, without delay, place yourself in right relation to
God? Will you not say, “I will give my will to Jesus, and I will
do it now,” and from this moment be wholly on the Lord’s side?
Disregard custom, and the strong clamoring of appetite and passion.
Give Satan no chance to say, “You are a wretched hypocrite.” Close
the door, so that Satan will not thus accuse and dishearten you. Say,
“I will believe, I do believe that God is my helper,” and you will find
that you are triumphant in God. By steadfastly keeping the will on
the Lord’s side, every emotion will be brought into captivity to the
will of Jesus. You will then find your feet on solid rock. It will take,
at times, every particle of will-power that you possess, but it is God
that is working for you, and you will come forth from the molding
process a vessel unto honor.
God’s Will and Man’s Will United
Talk faith. Keep on God’s side of the line. Set not your foot
on the enemy’s side, and the Lord will be your Helper. He will do
for you that which it is not possible for you to do for yourself. The
result will be that you will become like a “cedar of Lebanon.” Your
Exercise of the Will 139
life will be noble, and your works will be wrought in God. There
will be in you a power, an earnestness, and a simplicity that will
make you a polished instrument in the hands of God.
You need to drink daily at the fountain of truth, that you may
understand the secret of pleasure and joy in the Lord. But you must
remember that your will is the spring of all your actions. This will, [154]
that forms so important a factor in the character of man, was at
the fall given into the control of Satan; and he has ever since been
working in man to will and to do of his own pleasure, but to the utter
ruin and misery of man.
But the infinite sacrifice of God in giving Jesus, His beloved
Son, to become a sacrifice for sin, enables Him to say, without
violating one principle of His government, “Yield yourself up to
Me; give Me that will; take it from the control of Satan, and I will
take possession of it; then I can work in you to will and to do of
My good pleasure.” When He gives you the mind of Christ, your
will becomes as His will, and your character is transformed to be
like Christ’s character. Is it your purpose to do God’s will? Do you
wish to obey the Scriptures? “If any man will come after Me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
There is no such thing as following Christ unless you refuse
to gratify inclination and determine to obey God. It is not your
feelings, your emotions, that make you a child of God, but the doing
of God’s will. A life of usefulness is before you, if your will becomes
God’s will. Then you may stand in your God-given manhood, an
example of good works. You will then help to maintain rules of
discipline, instead of helping to break them down. You will then help
to maintain order, instead of despising it, and inciting to irregularity
of life by your own course of action.
I tell you in the fear of God, I know what you may be, if your
will is placed on the side of God. [155]
“We are laborers together with God,” You may be doing your
work for time and eternity in such a manner that it will stand the test
of the judgment. Will you try? Will you now turn square about?
You are the object of Christ’s love and intercession. Will you now
surrender to God, and help those who are placed as sentinels to
guard the interests of His work, instead of causing them grief and
discouragement?—Testimonies for the Church 5:513-516.