Fervent, Importunate Prayer Will Bring Divine Help

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Fervent, Importunate Prayer Will Bring Divine Help

Today's Text: Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24

The Message:      Christ resisted the manifold temptations of Satan on our behalf, and through His name made it possible for us to overcome Satan on our own behalf. When we are burdened, when we are pressed with temptation, when the feelings and desires of the natural heart are contending for the victory, we should offer up fervent, importunate prayer to our heavenly Father in the name of Christ; and this will bring Jesus to our help, so that, through His all-powerful and efficacious name, we may gain the victory and banish Satan from our side. But we should not flatter ourselves that we are safe while we make but feeble efforts in our own behalf....      Our danger does not arise from the opposition of the world, but it is found in the liability of our being in friendship with the world, and imitating the example of those who love not God or His truth. The loss of earthly things for the truth's sake, the suffering of great inconvenience for loyalty to principle, does not place us in danger of losing our faith and hope, but we are in danger of suffering loss because of being deceived and overcome by the temptations of Satan. Trials will work for our good if we receive and bear them without murmuring, and will tend to separate us from the love of the world, and will lead us to trust more fully in God.      There is help for us only in God. We should not flatter ourselves that we have any strength or wisdom of our own, for our strength is weakness, our judgment foolishness. Christ conquered the foe in our behalf, because He pitied our weakness and knew that we would be overcome and would perish if He did not come to our help....      The merits of Christ elevate and ennoble humanity, and through the name and grace of Christ it is possible for us to overcome the degradation caused by the Fall, and, through the exalted, divine nature of Christ, to be linked to the Infinite. It is dangerous for us to think that by any easy or common effort we may win the eternal reward. Let us consider how much it cost our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation to carry on in our behalf the conflict with the wily, malignant foe. Satan knew that everything depended upon his success or failure in his attempt to overcome Christ with his manifold temptations. Satan knew that the plan of salvation would be carried out to its fulfillment, that his power would be taken away, that his destruction would be certain, if Christ bore the test that Adam failed to endure.-Manuscript 65, 1894 (The Review and Herald, February 5, 1895).

Commentary: My friend, Christ came and overcame sin in the flesh that He may give to us the power to overcome sin in our lives.  It is only by our connection to Jesus Christ that we may gain the victory over sin.  Too many times we fail to gain the victory because of our close association with the world.  Rather then to seek wholly after Jesus and to hunger and thirst after His righteousness, we continue to associate with the things of the world.  We are not wholly separated from the influences of the world and as such are tempted by its influence. If we are to gain the victory over sin, there must be a decided separation from it.  Unless we make an effort to draw nigh unto God, He will not draw nigh unto us.  While there is no amount of effort on our part that will save us, we must exercise our wills on the side of Christ.  As we come to Him with fervent and importunate prayers, focusing our hearts and minds upon Him, He will give us His divine power to overcome sin.  The Scriptures say "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13). One of the other reasons why there are so many in the church that have not an experience of victory over sin is because they are not looking unto Jesus for that victory.  By their belief in the false god of the trinity they are looking unto another mediator; another being for the victory.  The trinity teaches that the Holy Spirit is the person that dwells within them and connects them with heaven.  This person, who is not Jesus Christ, has not come in the flesh and been tempted with sin, and as such cannot give us an experience of victory over it. The Scriptures tell us "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5).  The Son of God is the only one that can connect us with the Father and give us victory over sin.  He came in the flesh and was tempted as we are, and was victorious over it.  The victory that He has gained, He gained for us and He will impart this victory to us if we would but seek after Him with all of our hearts. My friend, God the Holy Spirit of the trinity cannot give you victory over sin, only the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ can do this.  Now is the time for us to look away from the deception of the trinity and look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, that we may gain the victory over sin. God bless,

Video of the Week The Sin Against the Holy Spirit - Allen Stump This message is about the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin for which there is no forgiveness. Is this the ultimate state of emenity against God or can there also be a specific sin so great that it cuts away salvation forever?