Christ Has Power For Us

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for October 22
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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Christ Has Power For Us

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power. Col. 2:10.

We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
Nothing but His loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power,
can enable us to baffle the relentless foe and subdue the opposition of
the human heart. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the
melting love of Christ fill the heart, and we are softened and subdued,
prepared to receive the power that He has for us.

Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If the human
agent will humble himself before God, realizing how inappropriate it is
for him to cherish a feeling of self-sufficiency; realizing his utter
inability to do the work that needs to be done in order for his soul to
be purified, casting away, making of no account, his own righteousness,
Christ will engrave His own image upon his soul. . . . Christ will never
neglect the work that has been placed in His hands. He will inspire the
resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained
condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which He is working. The
true penitent has learned the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to
Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect
character, he can say,

In my hand no price I bring;
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
With Isaiah he declares, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou
also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords
beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make
mention of thy name" (Isa. 26:12, 13).

Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after
truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes
dissatisfied with everything but perfection. Hiding his life in the life
of Christ, he sees that the holiness of the divine law is revealed in
the character of Christ, and more and more earnestly he strives to be
like Him. A warfare may be expected at any time, for the tempter sees
that he is losing one of his subjects. A battle must be fought with the
attributes which Satan has been strengthening for his own use.

The human agent sees what he has to contend with-a strange power opposed
to the idea of attaining the perfection that Christ holds out. But with
Christ there is saving power that will gain for him victory in the
conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading
for grace and efficiency.

>From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 274.