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Messages to Young People
Heart Examination
Closely examine your own heart, and the state of your affections
toward God. Inquire, Have I devoted the precious moments of today in
seeking to please myself, seeking for my own amusement? or have I
made others happy? Have I helped those connected with me to greater
devotion to God and to appreciate eternal things? Have I brought my
religion into my home, and there revealed the grace of Christ in my
words and in my deportment? By my respectful obedience, have I
honored my parents, and thus kept the fifth commandment? Have I
cheerfully taken up my little, everyday duties, performing them with
fidelity, doing what I could to lighten the burdens of others? Have I
kept my lips from evil, and my tongue from speaking guile? Have I
honored Christ my Redeemer, who gave His precious life that eternal
life might be within my reach?
Watch and Pray
At the beginning of the day, do not, dear youth, neglect to pray
earnestly to Jesus that He will impart to you strength and grace to
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resist the temptations of the enemy in whatever form they may come;
and if you pray earnestly, in faith and contrition of soul, the Lord will
hear your prayer. But you must watch as well as pray. Jesus has said:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or
what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him
a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask Him?”
Children and youth may come to Jesus with their burdens and
perplexities, and know that He will respect their appeals to Him, and
give them the very things they need. Be earnest; be resolute. Present
the promise of God, and then believe without a doubt. Do not wait to
feel special emotions before you think the Lord answers. Do not mark
out some particular way that the Lord must work for you before you
believe you receive the things you ask of Him; but trust His word, and