Chapter 53—Blessings Through Obedience
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Psalm 40:8
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What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence
and care, and He has built a hedge—the Ten Commandments—about His
subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring
obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and
happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character
He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His Word.
The true seeker, who is striving to be like Jesus in word, life, and
character, will contemplate his Redeemer and, by beholding, become
changed into His image, because he longs and prays for the same disposition
and mind that was in Christ Jesus.... He longs after God. The history of
his Redeemer, the immeasurable sacrifice that He made, becomes full of
meaning to him. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, became poor, that we through
His poverty might become rich; not rich merely in endowments, but rich in
attainments.
These are the riches that Christ earnestly longs that His followers shall
possess. As the true seeker after the truth reads the Word and opens his mind
to receive the Word, he longs after truth with his whole heart. The love, the
pity, the tenderness, the courtesy, the Christian politeness, which will be the
elements in the heavenly mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those
that love Him, take possession of his soul. His purpose is steadfast. He is
determined to stand on the side of righteousness. Truth has found its way
into the heart, and is planted there by the Holy Spirit, who is the truth. When
truth takes hold of the heart, the man gives sure evidence of this by becoming
a steward of the grace of Christ.
Each steward has his own special work to do for the advancement of
God’s kingdom.... The talents of speech, memory, influence, property, are to
accumulate for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. He
will bless the right use of His gifts.
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