Basic HTML Version
Chapter 11
39
wants of us is to be learning every day of our lives how to build
our characters for time and for eternity. He does not want us to get
into one channel and never turn out of that; to have fixed ideas, and
hold them fast, whether they are right or wrong. He will place us
amid trials and difficulties, and when we have learned to overcome
obstacles in a right spirit, with high and holy purpose, He will give
us another lesson. And if we have not the meekness of Christ to be
constantly learning of Jesus in His school, then we must know that
we have not the yoke of Christ (
The Review and Herald, May 10,
1887
).
29 (
John 15:4, 5
). Hard to Give Up Own Will and Way
—If
you are willing to learn meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ’s
school, He will surely give you rest and peace. It is a terribly hard
struggle to give up your own will and your own way. But this lesson
learned, you will find rest and peace. Pride, selfishness, and ambition
must be overcome; your will must be swallowed up in the will of
Christ. The whole life may become one constant love sacrifice, every
action a manifestation, and every word an utterance of love. As the
life of the vine circulates through stem and cluster, descends into
the lower fibers, and reaches to the topmost leaf, so will the grace
and love of Christ burn and abound in the soul, sending its virtues to
[1092]
every part of the being, and pervading every exercise of body and
mind (
Letter 14, 1887
).
How to Wear the Yoke
—Take hold of the arm of God, and say,
“I am nothing, and Thou art everything. Thou hast said, ‘Without
me ye can do nothing.’ Now, Lord, I must have Thee abiding in
me, that I may abide in Thee.” Then advance step by step, by living
faith abiding in Jesus Christ. This is wearing His yoke, the yoke of
obedience (
Manuscript 85, 1901
).
Wearing the yoke with Christ, means to work in His lines, to be
a copartner with Him in His sufferings and toils for lost humanity.
It means to be a wise instructor of souls. We shall be what we are
willing to be made by Christ in these precious hours of probation.
We shall be the sort of a vessel that we allow ourselves to be molded
into. We must unite with God in the molding and fashioning work,
having our wills submitted to the divine will (
Letter 71, 1895
).
30. Easy Yoke Does Not Give Life of Ease
—The Lord calls
His yoke easy, and His burden light. Yet that yoke will not give