Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Struggling with all Energy”. A good lesson on “how God can bring healing to the darkest moments of our lives” (quarterly for Sabbath, July 30). In this week’s lesson on the role of our will, we can be tempted to think of our will as the power that can change us from sinners to saints. But we must not place the power of the will as that power. The will is but the choosing mechanism, not the power to perform.
There are two EGW quotes that are so illuminating, here. The first is from “Steps to Christ” pg. 47:
Many are inquiring, "How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?" You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.”
In this first quote, we see the importance of our will, the importance of our choice. But we also see that the power to change us is not our “will”. The power is God Himself. His welcomed presence in our lives has power to change us.
Here is the second EGW quote from “The Desire of Ages” pg. 466:
“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God” (Desire of Ages pg. 466).
In this second quote we see that this intimate powerful presence of God in our lives is not some force exerted outside of us without our cooperation. In fact, we see that our choosing God imbues each of us with “the divine energy of the Holy Spirit” (ibid) and the powers of our soul “obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God” (ibid). This is one amazing quote! We are not to lounge around, waiting for some supernatural, miraculous event or action from God apart from our own cooperation and action. You and I are to act. The choice is ours, the “will” is ours, the action is ours, the power is God’s. And it is very evident that our will, our choice for God, enables God to so motivate us.
The bane of Protestant Christianity is that we can substitute “faith” for “works”. As if the two are antithetical. Seventh-Day Adventists are in a position to bring the two together. “Faith without works is dead” so says James (see James 2: 14-26). “But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law” (Romans 9: 31-32). Action or “works” is essential to “faith” or belief. True ‘faith” leads you to “work”. Just as true “faith” leads us to follow our Master in shouldering the responsibility for the sinful mess all around us. That is the Christian’s true calling. True “struggling with all energy” (Title of this week’s lesson). Faith in our God leads us to follow Him. We see His love, His action in undoing the thrall of sin in the human heart. And we long to do the same, be the same. To Love as He loves. To break the thrall of loveless-ness that captivates us all.
Faith that is satisfied with our own personal salvation is not true faith. Works that act out of a motive of ego and pride are not true works. “For in Christ Jesus… faith working through love” is everything (Galatians 5:6). “For in Christ Jesus… a new creation” is all that can accomplish the suppression of the “flesh” and the exaltation of true love that will stand with our Father and shoulder the responsibility of this sinful world, within the scope of our influence. This is the struggling with all energy we are called to do… called to be. May we answer the call… trust Him… and follow. True faith. True works.
With brotherly love,
Jim