(This Day With God 34.4, 49.8, 64.2, 102.4, 108.6, 162.3, 212.6, 221.2, 257.4, 280.2, 291.4, 302.5, 315, 330.3, 373.2)
The difficulties which those who put on Christ and keep His commandments must undergo, are not of Christ’s designing. “If any man will come after me,” He says, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The duty of intelligent souls is to hold to the truth, to practice virtue. We are born with a disinclination to both. It is sad to find in one’s own constitution an opposition to virtues that are commendable in the sight of God, as submission, charity, sweetness of spirit, and patience that will not be provoked. Say to yourselves, dear children, I am weakness, but God is my strength. He has given me my post of duty. The General whom I serve bids me be an overcomer....
(TDG 34.4)
MC
VC
Shall we take up the cross, and intelligently understand what it means to follow Christ, practicing self-denial at every step?—Letter 66, February 10, 1906, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
(TDG 49.8)
MC
VC
Like the Jews in the days of Christ, many today hear and believe, but are not willing to step out upon the platform of obedience, and accept the truth as it is in Jesus. They are afraid of losing worldly advantages. Their minds assent to the truth but to obey means to lift the cross of self-denial and sacrifice, and to cease trusting in man and making flesh their arm, and they turn away from the cross. They might sit at the feet of Jesus, learning daily of Him whom to know aright is life eternal, but they are not willing.
(TDG 64.2)
MC
VC
The talents God has entrusted will call for proportionate returns. God accepts “according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not” (2 Corinthians 8:12). He does not expect from the man who has only one talent that which He expects from him who has five. If the wealthy choose to gratify every selfish desire, to enjoy the good things of this life, they will be judged accordingly. They refuse to honor Christ by humble obedience, to lift His cross. They live to please and gratify self, and thus dishonor God; and He declares, “Them that honour me I will honour” (1 Samuel 2:30)....
(TDG 102.4)
MC
VC
The way to heaven is narrow, hedged in by the divine law of Jehovah. Those who follow this way must constantly deny self. They must obey the teachings of Christ.... Let us not trust in man, but in Jesus Christ, who died that He might win us to righteousness.—Letter 103, April 9, 1905, to E. S. Ballenger, an administrator at the Paradise Valley Sanitarium.
(TDG 108.6)
MC
VC
The Lord of glory did not consult His convenience or pleasure when He left His station of high command to become a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, accepting ignominy and death in order to deliver man from the consequence of his disobedience. Jesus died, not to save man in his sins, but from his sins. We must leave the error of our ways, take up our cross and follow Christ, denying self, and obeying God at any cost.
(TDG 162.3)
MC
VC
The hindrances that hold us back from perfecting Christian characters are in ourselves. Jesus can remove them. The cross He requires us to bear will create strength in us more than it consumes, and remove our heaviest burdens to take the burden of Christ, which is light. Conflicts and trials we must meet in the discharge of duty. Christ has called us to glory and to virtue. The life He has through His own suffering and death prepared for us to lead, would never have cost us a pain or grief if we had never left it. Every self-denial and every sacrifice we make in following Christ are so many steps of the lost sheep returning to the fold.—Letter 7, July 22, 1877, to Edson and Emma White.
(TDG 212.6)
MC
VC
In our work for God we shall meet with much opposition. By falsehood and deception the Jews strove to keep the people from believing on Christ. Today false teachers will resort to any means to keep people from obtaining a knowledge of the truth. There are those who love error more than they love truth, because truth is opposed to their inclinations and their course of action. They refuse to repent and be converted, even though the evidence for truth is clear and convincing. They do not want to search the Scriptures, to see if these things are so. There lies the cross to be lifted, but they are unwilling to deny self. God asks them to keep holy His Sabbath, but they refuse to give up their own way....
(TDG 221.2)
MC
VC
I see no other way for us than to heed the words of Christ, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). These words we must obey if we gain eternal life. The Majesty of heaven came to this world to teach us this lesson by a life of constant self-denial. Shall we not heed His instruction?
(TDG 257.4)
MC
VC
We all have an experience to gain and crosses to lift. If we study our own pleasure and gratify our own desires and taste, we shall be found wanting in the day of retribution and rewards. If we live to do others good and to glorify God, we shall not be considerate of ourselves, but shall seek to be of use in the world, blessing humanity, and we shall receive the blessing of “Well done” from the lips of the Master.
(TDG 280.2)
MC
VC
A true disciple of Christ will seek to imitate the Pattern. His love will lead to perfect obedience. He will study to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven. He whose heart is still defiled with sin cannot be zealous of good works; and is not careful to abstain from evil, is not vigilant and watchful over his own motives and conduct, is not jealous over his unruly tongue; he is not careful to deny self and lift the cross of Christ. These poor, deceived souls fail to keep the first four precepts of the decalogue, defining the duty of man to God, neither do they keep the last six commandments, defining the duty of man to his fellow men.
(TDG 291.4)
MC
VC
John White said, “Ellen, I am deeply sorry to see you so feeble. A trying ordeal is before you in the funeral services of the morrow. God help you, my dear sister, God help you on this occasion.” Said I, “Brother John, you do not know me. The more trying the situation, the more fortitude I possess. I shall give way to no outbursts of grief, if my heart breaks. I serve God, not impulsively, but intelligently. I have a Saviour who will be to me a very present help in time of trouble. I am a Christian. I know in whom I have believed. He expects from me implicit unwavering submission. Undue grief is displeasing to God. I take up my appointed cross and will follow the Lord fully. I will not give myself to abandonment of grief. I will not yield to a morbid and melancholy state of feeling. I will not complain or murmur at the providence of God. Jesus is my Saviour. He lives. He will never leave me nor forsake me.” ...
(TDG 302.5)
MC
VC
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Hebrews 10:22.
(TDG 315.1)
MC
VC
There can be no true prayer without true faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Prayer and faith are the arms by which the soul hangs upon the neck of infinite love, and grasps the hand of infinite power. God does not recognize dumb children, as far as experience in His truth is concerned. Faith is an active, working power. The newborn faith in Christ is revealed by prayer and praise. Prayer is a relief and a comfort to the troubled soul. The sincere, humble suppliant at the throne of grace may know that he is communing with God, through the divinely appointed means, and that it is his privilege to understand what God is to the believing soul. We must have a realization of our needs. We must hunger and thirst after life in Christ and through Christ. Then we shall come to Him in humility and sincerity, and He will give us the faith that works by love and purifies the soul....
(TDG 315.2)
MC
VC
Christ gave Himself willingly and cheerfully to the carrying out the will of God. “He ...became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). In view of all that He has done, should we feel it a hardship to deny ourselves? Shall we draw back from being partakers of Christ’s sufferings? His death ought to stir every fiber of our beings, making us willing to consecrate to His work all that we have and are.
(TDG 315.3)
MC
VC
As we think of what He has done for us, our hearts should be filled with gratitude and love, and we should renounce all selfishness and sin. What duty could the heart refuse to perform, under the constraining influence of the love of God and Christ? “I am crucified with Christ,” the apostle Paul declared: “nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
(TDG 315.4)
MC
VC
Let us relate ourselves to God in self-denying, self-sacrificing obedience. Faith in Christ always leads to willing, cheerful obedience. He died to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. There is to be perfect conformity, in thought, word, and deed, to the will of God. Heaven is only for those who have purified their souls through obedience to the truth.—Letter 301, November 2, 1904, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
(TDG 315.5)
MC
VC
Christ’s commission is to be received and acted upon. We are to go forth in faith, with earnest prayer for the presence of One who has said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). With the promise of such companionship, we are guilty of great unbelief and disobedience if we refuse to take up the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice.... As we communicate the light that has found entrance to our souls, the Holy Spirit gives increased light, and our hearts are filled with the precious joy of the Lord....
(TDG 330.3)
MC
VC
Study the instruction found in Matthew 25:14-46. Compare this instruction with your life record. Let every man put away his boasting.... Let us walk in the footsteps of Christ in all the humility of true faith. Let us put away all self-trust, committing ourselves, day by day and hour by hour, to the Saviour, constantly receiving and imparting His grace. I beg those who profess to believe in Christ to walk humbly before God. Pride and self-exaltation are an offense to Him. “If any man will come after me,” Christ declares, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Those only who obey this word will He recognize as His believing ones. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12, 13).
(TDG 373.2)
MC
VC