The Upward Look - a daily audio devotional

Work, For the Night Cometh, March 6

Written by David DeRose MD, MPH | March 6

The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. John 5:36.

 

The signs of the times fulfilling all around us show us that the end of all things is at hand. Intense earnestness should take possession of us. Our slumbering energies should be aroused by persevering effort.

Consecrated workers should go forth into the field, and move understandingly forward, clearing the King’s highway, obtaining victories in new places. Let the Lord’s workers labor in faith and trust. Some for whom they work will listen to the message and accept the truth. Let them do what God has commanded them to do. Proportionate to their faith will be their success. The Scriptures declare: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:5-7).

How strange it is that those who have had the light of truth for so many years have not carried the torch of truth into the dark places of the earth. The whole world is astir. The Lord calls upon His people to awake out of sleep. My brethren and sisters, stop criticizing others, but criticize severely your own words and motives. We have no time to spend in using the enemy’s methods... Envy, malice, hatred, unbelief, which have been growing into sturdy plants in the garden of the soul, are to be uprooted and cast out, and their place supplied by love, patience, forbearance, kindness, benevolence, tenderheartedness, meekness...

While the men of the world are idolizing money, and making it their trust, the Lord in His providence has brought forth from His treasure house a precious treasure, and has placed it within the reach of all. He has given His people an opportunity to take to their friends and neighbors and to strangers a book [Christ’s Object Lessons] containing the precious lessons of Christ...

Christ has placed upon His church a sacred charge, the fulfilling of which calls for self-denial at every step. When those who believe in Him are seen lifting the cross and bearing it after Him in the path of self-denial, willingly doing all in their power to bring blessing to those for whom Christ died, witness will be borne to the power of Christianity, and in the hearts of many now unbelievers will spring up faith in Him who gave His life to save a guilty world from eternal ruin.—Letter 43, March 6, 1903, to Lucinda Hall, one of Ellen White’s closest friends.

 

Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 79