It’s Still a Fight
53
accomplishment will require toil, time, perseverance, patience, and
sacrifice.
We cannot allow ourselves to act from impulse. We cannot be off
guard for a moment. Beset with temptations without number, we must
resist firmly or be conquered. Should we come to the close of life with
our work undone, it would be an eternal loss.
The life of the apostle Paul was a constant conflict with self. He
said, “I die daily” (
1 Corinthians 15:31
). His will and his desires every
day conflicted with duty and the will of God. Instead of following
inclination, he did God’s will, however crucifying to his nature.
At the close of his life of conflict, looking back over its struggles
and triumphs, he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished
my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
give me at that day” (
2 Timothy 4:7, 8
).
The Christian life is a battle and a march. In this warfare there
is no release; the effort must be continuous and persevering. It is by
unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations
of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy and
maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose.
No one will be borne upward without stern, persevering effort in
his own behalf. All must engage in this warfare for themselves; no
one else can fight our battles....
[61]
There’s a Science to It
There is a science of Christianity to be mastered—a science as
much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens
are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated,
trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony
with inborn inclination. Hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil
must be overcome. Often the education and training of a lifetime
must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of
Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We
are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation.
We must learn to look upward. The principles of the word of God—
principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity—we
are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every