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Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, February 28
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
.
You need at every step the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. This
faith quickens and uplifts the soul by the nobility of holy practice. It is essential to
everyone who is running in the race for eternal life. It raises the soul into a purer,
holier atmosphere, enabling its possessor to look forward to higher and still higher
attainments and to discern clearly the dangers of a life of self-indulgence. Look
by faith above yourself and see in the work of God the way to gain the riches that
can be laid up beside the throne of God. O the height and depth of the knowledge
that may be obtained by unreserved consecration to God. The Lord will have the
whole man, or none at all. His favor cannot be purchased with gifts of money. He
calls for the gift of the whole heart.
It is not necessary for us to know the results of our course of action before
we surrender wholly to God. We do not need to see the way, or to know what
the future will be. One thing we do know, because God has said it—the man that
fears God and works righteousness will be accepted by Him. This is enough for
us to know. Day by day walk before the Lord in humility and contrition. Your
future destiny depends on your own course of action. “Choose you this day whom
ye will serve” (
Joshua 24:15
). “If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then
follow him” (
1 Kings 18:21
). Be one thing or the other. “Ye cannot serve God
and mammon” (
Luke 16:13
). Your present happiness and your future well-being
depend on your own choice. If you choose to follow Jesus, you must obey the
word, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow me” (
Matthew 16:24
).
Eternal life is for all who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God—
living by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. Those who do this will gain
a clear understanding of what it means to be one with Christ.
“The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and
easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without
hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make
peace” (
James 3:17, 18
). Two people may engage in the same acts of outward
worship, yet the service of one, when weighed in the golden scales of the sanctuary,
may be found wanting, while the service of the other may be accepted. Only the
service that is performed in sincerity, with a humble, contrite heart, is acceptable
to God.—
Letter 39, February 28, 1903
, to a Seventh-day Adventist businessman.
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