Self-respect
137
Jesus holds His hand beneath you. Jesus will not suffer the enemy
to overcome you. Jesus will give you the victory. He has the virtue;
He has the righteousness. You may look to yourself to find it and may
well despair in doing this because it is not there. Jesus has it. It is
yours by faith because you love God and keep His commandments.
Do not listen to Satan’s lies, but recount God’s promises. Gather
the roses and the lilies and the pinks. Talk of the promises of God. Talk
faith. Trust in God, for He is your only hope. He is my only hope. I
have tremendous battles with Satan’s temptations to discouragements,
but I will not yield an inch. I will not give Satan an advantage over my
body or my mind.
If you look to yourself, you will see only weakness. There is no
Saviour there. You will find Jesus away from yourself. You must
look and live; [look] to Him who became sin for us, that we might be
cleansed from sin and receive of Christ’s righteousness.
Now, Martha, do not look to yourself but away to Jesus. Talk of
His love, talk of His goodness, talk of His power, for He will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able to bear. But in Christ is
our righteousness. Jesus makes up our deficiencies because He sees
we cannot do it ourselves. While praying for you I see a soft light
encompassing a hand stretched out to save you. God’s words are our
credentials. We stand upon them. We love the truth. We love Jesus.
Feelings are no evidence of God’s displeasure.
Your life is precious in the sight of God. He has a work for you to
do. It is not unfolded to you now, but just walk on trustingly without a
single word, because this would grieve the dear Jesus and show that
you were afraid to trust Him. Lay your hand in His; He is reaching
over the battlements of heaven [for it] to be laid confidingly in His.
Oh, what love, what tender love has Jesus manifested in our behalf.
[147]
The Bible promises are the pinks and the roses and the lilies in the
garden of the Lord.
Oh, how many walk a dark path, looking to the objectionable,
unlovely things on either side of them, when a step higher are the
flowers. They think they have no right to say they are children of God
and lay hold on the promises set before them in the gospel, because
they do not have the evidence of their acceptance with God. They go
through painful struggles, afflicting their souls, as did Martin Luther
to cast himself upon Christ’s righteousness.