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We Abide in Christ by a Living Faith, October 23
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the
temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2
Corinthians 6:16
.
We are abiding in Christ by a living faith. He is abiding in our hearts by
our individual appropriating of faith. We have the companionship of the divine
presence, and as we realize this presence our thoughts are brought into captivity
to Jesus Christ. Our spiritual exercises are in accordance with the vividness of our
sense of this companionship. Enoch walked with God in this way; and Christ is
dwelling in our hearts by faith when we will consider what He is to us, and what a
work He has wrought out for us in the plan of redemption. We shall be most happy
in cultivating a sense of this great gift of God to our world and to us personally.
These thoughts have a controlling power upon the whole character. I want to
impress upon your mind that you may have a divine companion with you, if you
will, always....
As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine
similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We
contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses
us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn
away our eyes the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look.
Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image,
the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else.
His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of
our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are
conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom
we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We
have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the
reflection of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Here again there is the
realization of a personal, living influence dwelling in our hearts by faith.
When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession
of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and
actions....
Jesus Christ is everything to us—the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus
Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and woof, the
very texture of our entire being.... Continuing to look unto Jesus, we reflect His
image to all around us.—
Messages to Young People, 159-161
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