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Ambition Brings Sorrow, March 2
The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow
with it.
Proverbs 10:22
.
Lucifer ... , before his rebellion, was a high and exalted angel, next in
honor to God’s dear Son. His countenance, like those of the other angels,
was mild and expressive of happiness. His forehead was high and broad,
showing a powerful intellect. His form was perfect; his bearing noble
and majestic. A special light beamed in his countenance and shone
around him brighter and more beautiful than around the other angels;
yet Christ, God’s dear Son, had the pre-eminence over all the angelic
host. He was one with the Father before the angels were created....
Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ. Yet when all the
angels bowed to Jesus to acknowledge His supremacy and high authority
and rightful rule, he bowed with them; but his heart was filled with envy
and hatred.... Why should Christ thus be honored before himself?
Lucifer in heaven desired to be first in power and authority; he
wanted to be God, to have the rulership of heaven; and to this end he
won many of the angels to his side. When with his rebel host he was
cast out from the courts of God, the work of rebellion and self-seeking
was continued on earth. Through the temptation to self-indulgence
and ambition Satan accomplished the fall of our first parents; and from
that time to the present the gratification of human ambition and the
indulgence of selfish hopes and desires have proved the ruin of mankind.
He who makes self-glorification his aim will find himself destitute
of the grace of God, through whose efficiency the truest riches and the
most satisfying joys are won. But he who gives all and does all for
Christ will know the fulfillment of the promise, “The blessing of the
Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”
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