Prayer and Promises

Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world. — Philippians 2:14,15, HCSB 

The old year, with its burden of record, has passed into eternity, and the new year has begun. Let us gather up the treasures of the past year,—our remembrances of God’s goodness and mercy,—and carry them with us into the new year. Let us brighten the future by the thought of past blessings. 

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Let us cooperate with the Lord Jesus. Only thus shall we be able to accomplish our part of the work. He is our efficiency. He will give us power. Let us plant our feet firmly on the platform of eternal truth; then we may know that over us is the protection of God. 

My brethren and sisters, during this new year let there be among you no accusing. This is the work of the enemy. If he can lead professing Christians to accuse and condemn, he is served as he desires to be. Let no one, by yielding to feelings of envy, weaken the hands of his brother, so that the work entrusted to him is marred. 

Often, when the Lord works upon a certain man’s mind to do certain things for the advancement of His work, another man thinks that he can see defects in his fellow-worker’s efforts. Let him keep to his own work. The Lord, who sees the end from the beginning, will fulfill His purposes. He will unite with the one to whom He has entrusted His work, and will bring about its accomplishment. He knows just what is needed. 

Christ is the great Master-worker. We are laborers together with Him. He has a right to give each one his work. And let each one be sure to do the work given him… When we learn to attend closely to our own work, the Lord will help us, and all parts of His cause will move in harmony. 

I ask you to study the eighteenth chapter of Matthew and the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. Pray earnestly for grace, and then prepare your hearts to receive the answer to your prayer. 

We are being tested and tried. May the Lord of heaven shut us in with Him, that the wicked one may have no power over us. 

Pacific Union Recorder, January 15, 1903 

Father God, through all the difficulties of the past year You have shown great goodness and mercy to me. Help me have the same merciful heart as You, forgive me when I am critical of others and focus on their defects. I earnestly seek to receive Your grace in my heart and be a laborer together with You. Shut me in with You that the wicked one will have no power over me.