The keynote of our work is indicated in Samuel 12:22, where we find Samuel's experience with Israel after they expressed their desire for a king. "For the Lord will not forsake His people, . . . because it bath pleased the Lord to make you His people." And also in j Samuel 12:23, 24, which reads, "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you." In these quotations four points stand out as applicable to our situation :
- God will not forsake.
- God forbid that we as leaders should sin by ceasing to pray for those we attempt to direct.
- God will teach us the good and right way.
- Fear the Lord and serve Him, and consider the great things He hath done for us.
How important that we should set ourselves in order, as God's people, to receive His blessing. It has pleased the Lord to call us. Have we exhibited pleasure in being called?
You have heard the story of the visit to a famous sculptor, by a man greatly interested in art. He came to a beautiful statue of Christ. After studying it for some time, he said to the sculptor, "I do not understand your statue. You can carve, I know, but your statue is all out of proportion. Can't you see it?"
"You do not see it as I see it," replied the sculptor. "You will find at the foot of the statue a place to kneel, and when you kneel at the foot of my image of Christ, you will 'see it in its true proportions." The man knelt at the foot of the statue, and he saw it at once in its true proportions and in all its glory.
There is a lesson in this for us. You and I can never fully appreciate the Saviour until we have knelt at His feet. 0 that we might spend more time at the' foot of the cross ! That we might behold more often the glory of the cross! By beholding we become changed into His glorious image. We need so much to continue kneeling at the feet of Jesus for strength and power to meet the trials and problems of each day. God will not forsake us.
"Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you."—The Desire of Ages, P. 483.
"At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer."—Id., pp. 669, 670.
Now is the time to develop the virtue of patience. Satan has failed to defeat us in our beliefs, and is now concentrating upon our endurance. The rarest forms of courage are displayed when one is compelled just to sit and wait. To maintain one's true relationship to Christ by the patience of faith is one of the ultimate attainments of a perfect character. As Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Job 13 :15. A short time ago I read this comforting thought in the Pacific Union Recorder:
"Now is the time to venture our all in abandoned confidence in Him. The real meaning of a Christian life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering, and wait in faith for God to act. God is now disciplining us to get us into this central place of power and endurance."—June 9, 1943.
You who have visited Boulder Dam have a conception of the enormous amount of cement and rock that is placed there, the elevators, the turbines at the base, and the large standards that carry the wires out across the expanse of desert to areas of Southern California. When you come to the cities and towns you will note the transformers stepping down the power, transforming it to be used in everyday living —in lights, stoves, irons, pumping engines, etc.
God Will Teach the Right Way
God is our present powerhouse. We are the substations, the transformers, educating those students entrusted to our care to go out and let their lights shine, to become power stations for God.
"God will teach us the good and right way," immediately makes me think of the chapter in Ministry of Healing, beginning on page 483. Doubtless you will think of a number of sentences in that chapter which mean much to you. "Study carefully the divine-human character, and constantly inquire, 'What would Jesus do were He in My place?' "—Page 491. That is the beginning of God's teaching us the right and good way. There are a number of other sentences in this chapter well worth our consideration. For instance, the one instructing us that so far as we are capable, we are to be to others as Christ was to His disciples when He walked and talked with them on earth. We would do well to read the whole chapter through, and study it over and over again.
His part in our program is that He will not forsake us, and He will teach us the good and the right way. Our part is to pray for those for whom we are responsible, and to fear the Lord and to serve Him. And then, along with this, we have this text, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10.
