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Step by Step to Victory, February 29
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth
the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest
that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be
a castaway.
1 Corinthians 9:26, 27
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God leads His people on step by step. The Christian life is a battle and a
march. In this warfare there is no release; the effort must be continuous and
persevering. It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over
the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless
energy and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose....
There is a science of Christianity to be mastered—a science as much
deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher
than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to
do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination.
There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome.
Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one
may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to
become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable
us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of
the Word of God—principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass
eternity—we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act,
every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles.
The precious graces of the Holy Spirit are not developed in a moment.
Courage, fortitude, meekness, faith, unwavering trust in God’s power to save,
are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavor and firm
adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny.
We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close.
Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. Christ is soon
to come. The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and
from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain.—
Testimonies for the Church
8:313, 314
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