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Time of Trouble
337
not faint though severely tried. Jacob’s victory is an evidence of
the power of importunate prayer. All who will lay hold of God’s
promises, as he did, will succeed as he succeeded. Wrestling with
God—how few know what it is! When waves of despair sweep over
the suppliant, how few cling with faith to the promises of God.
Those who exercise but little faith now are in the greatest danger
of falling under the power of satanic delusions. And even if they
endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress because they
have never made it a habit to trust in God. We should now prove His
promises.
Often trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality, but this is
not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot
reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial every soul
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must stand for himself before God.
Now, while our High Priest is making the atonement for us, we
should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could
our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan
finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold;
some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations
assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself: “The prince
of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
John 14:30
. Satan
could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain
the victory. There was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his
advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who
shall stand in the time of trouble.
It is in this life that we are to separate sin from us, through faith
in the atoning blood of Christ. Our precious Saviour invites us to
join ourselves to Him, to unite our weakness to His strength, our
unworthiness to His merits. It rests with us to cooperate with Heaven
in the work of conforming our characters to the divine model.
Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed
in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons.
Spirits of devils will go forth to the “kings of the earth” and to the
whole world, to urge them to unite with Satan in his last struggle
against the government of heaven. Persons will arise pretending
to be Christ Himself. They will perform miracles of healing and
profess to have revelations from heaven contradicting the Scriptures.