“Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
– Psalm 37:3
The piety and advanced spiritual knowledge and growth of a church is proportionate to the zeal, piety, and missionary intelligence that has been brought into it, and carried out of it to be a blessing to the very ones who need our assistance the most. Again I urge you to consider Isaiah 58, which opens a wide and extensive vineyard to be worked upon the lines which the Lord has pointed out. When this is done there will be an increase of moral sources and the church will no more remain almost stationary. There will be blessing and power attending their labor. The selfishness that has bound up their souls they have overcome, and now their light is being given to the world in clear, bright rays of a living faith and godly example. The Lord has His promises for all who will do His requirements.The Word of God is full of precious promises, as the above.
In our work we shall find a high profession of piety and much outward exactness bound up with great inward wickedness. The people represented in Isaiah 58 complain that the Lord allows their services to go unnoticed. This complaint is the expression of hearts unsubdued by grace, rebellious against the truth. Those who receive the truth which works by love and purifies the soul are loyal to God, honoring Him by obedience to His law, which is holy, just, and good. The spirit of true fasting and prayer is the spirit which yields mind, heart, and will to God.
Ministers of God have been guilty of the sin of disregarding a “Thus saith the Lord.” They have led the members of their churches to observe rites which have no foundation in the word of God, but are in direct opposition to His law. By perversion and misrepresentation of the Word of God, they have caused the people to commit sin. God will reward them according to their works. Even as did the priests and rulers in the time of Christ, they have caused the people to err. Christ says of them as He said of the Jewish leaders, “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. (1)
The Word of God is our guide, the foundation upon which we must build. One statement regarding the immutability of the law of God should be all sufficient for us; but God has assured us over and over again that His law is unchangeable, and that obedience to it is the only hope of the human family. God gave His law for the government of all human intelligences, and He desires men and women to obey it. Their prosperity in this life and their eternal interests depend upon their obedience. (2)
Charge for the Day: Write down three promises from God for those who obey God’s commands. Cherish these and remember them as you seek to follow Him.
1. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, pp. 1148-1149
2. Manuscript 28, 1900