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The Game of Life, October 22
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
1
Corinthians 16:13
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The truth of God obeyed, the living by every word of God, is alone
sufficient to make any of us stand in these evil times. Satan is playing the
game of life for the soul....
There are opportunities and advantages which are within the reach of
all to strengthen the moral and spiritual powers. The mind can be expanded
and ennobled and should be made to dwell upon heavenly things.... Unless
it flows in a heavenward direction it becomes an easy prey to the temptation
of Satan to engage in worldly projects and enterprises that have no special
connection with God. And all zeal and devotion and restless energy and
feverish desire are brought into this work, and the devil stands by and
laughs to see human effort wrestling so perseveringly for an object that
it will never gain, which eludes its grasp.... Schemes and projects which
Satan invents ensnare the soul, and poor, deceived human beings go on
blindfolded to their own ruin....
There is one safeguard against Satan’s deceptions and snares, that is
the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth planted in the heart, nourished by
watchfulness and prayer, nourished by the grace of Christ, will give us
discernment. The truth must abide in the heart, be felt in its power in spite
of all the alluring enchantments of Satan, and your experience and mine
must be that the truth can purify, guide, and bless the soul....
The enemy is on the track of every one of us, and if we would resist
temptations which assail us from without and from within, we need to
make sure we are on the Lord’s side, that His truth is in our hearts, that it
keeps watch in our souls, ready to sound an alarm and summon us to action
against every enemy. Without this defense amid unseen foes we shall be
like the willow bending to the blast, driven of the wind and tossed. But if
Christ abides in the soul we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might
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26
Letter 17, 1886
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