The Right Exercise of the Will
[
The Ministry of Healing, 174-179
(1905).]
The victims of evil habit must be aroused to the necessity of mak-
ing an effort for themselves. Others may put forth the most earnest
endeavor to uplift them, the grace of God may be freely offered, Christ
may entreat, His angels may minister; but all will be in vain unless
they themselves are roused to fight the battle in their own behalf.
The last words of David to Solomon, then a young man, and soon
to receive the crown of Israel, were, “Be thou strong, ... and show
thyself a man.”
1 Kings 2:2
. To every child of humanity, the candidate
for an immortal crown, are these words of inspiration spoken, “Be
thou strong, and show thyself a man.”
The self-indulgent must be led to see and feel that great moral
renovation is necessary if they would be men. God calls upon them to
arouse, and in the strength of Christ win back the God-given manhood
that has been sacrificed through sinful indulgence.
Feeling the terrible power of temptation, the drawing of desire
that leads to indulgence, many a man cries in despair, “I cannot resist
evil.” Tell him that he can, that he must resist. He may have been
overcome again and again, but it need not be always thus. He is weak
in moral power, controlled by the habits of a life of sin. His promises
and resolutions are like ropes of sand. The knowledge of his broken
promises and forfeited pledges weakens his confidence in his own
sincerity and causes him to feel that God cannot accept him or work
with his efforts. But he need not despair.
[440]
Those who put their trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any
hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency. Instead of being held in
bondage to the lower nature, they are to rule every appetite and pas-
sion. God has not left us to battle with evil in our own finite strength.
Whatever may be our inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, we
can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart....
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