I Will Declare My Iniquity

A little time spent in sowing your wild oats, dear young friends, will produce a crop that will imbitter your whole life; an hour of thoughtlessness—once yielding to temptation—may turn the whole current of your life in the wrong direction. You can have but one youth; make that useful. When once you have passed over the ground, you can never return to rectify your mistakes. He who refuses to connect with God, and puts himself in the way of temptation, will surely fall. God is testing every youth. Many have excused their carelessness and irreverence, because of the wrong example given them by more experienced professors. But this should not deter any from right-doing. In the day of final accounts you will plead no such excuses as you plead now. You will be justly condemned, because you knew the way, but did not choose to walk in it…. While some of the youth are wasting their powers in vanity and folly, others are disciplining their minds, storing up knowledge, girding on the armor to engage in life’s warfare, determined to make it a success. But they cannot make life a success, however high they may attempt to climb, unless they center their affections upon God. If they will turn to the Lord with all the heart, rejecting the flatteries of those who would in the slightest degree weaken their purpose to do right, they will have strength and confidence in God.—Testimonies for the Church 4:622-624.

It is for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession, and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.—Messages to Young People, 152.
With God at Dawn p. 223
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Brenda and several other of my friends who have covid. Rose
—-David and his family need earnest prayer. Buck
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Friends,

When we lived in Washington state, a neighbor about a fourth of a mile from our house had let us have some garden space. He even had rototilled it for us. We were very grateful and envisioned a bountiful harvest of our very favorite vegetables. With enthusiasm, we bought the seeds and planted them. After the little plants appeared, we were there each day to keep them free of weeds. At least we attempted to keep the garden free of weeds. We found that there was one big problem with our garden. Morning glories! I had always thought the big purple flowers of the cultivated kind were beautiful; and before they appeared in our garden, I even thought the little white blooms of the wild kind were pretty, but when they overran our garden, I hated even the sight of them.

Daily we labored pulling up the strong vines that ran underneath the soil. This was no easy task. We had to be careful not to uproot the good plants. We pulled and pulled and chopped and chopped and worked and worked to rid that garden of those miserable plants. Often we would think we had those pesky flowers completely gone, only to find the next day more leaves appearing above the soil. All summer we battled them without success. We had an acceptable harvest, but the “wheat and tares” grew together.

How much those morning glory vines are like sin in our life. Every day sin springs up when we least expect it. It is a constant battle to keep sin under control. That is the problem. We often think sin must be kept under control, but that is impossible. Sin must be eradicated completely!

We look at God’s Perfect Law of Liberty—the Ten Commandments and know that it is just and true and right and good. Yet, that law cannot change us: it only shows us our need of a Saviour. We cannot keep God’s Law in our own strength any more than I could keep the morning glories out of my garden. Just as the morning glories kept coming back because I could not get every tiny bit of the roots out of the garden, we must not give even a little part of our heart to the devil by holding on to sin. (Eph 4:27) In Romans 7, Paul describes our condition if we do. “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do…. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Praise God there He has shown us a way we can be delivered! It is found in the 25th verse. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He does not leave us to fight and battle the morning glories of sin by ourselves. No! He gives us power to obey if we will cooperate with Him and follow His directions. He assures us, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isa 41:10 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:26,27

May we gain the victory over all the “morning glory weeds” in our life, so that when He comes we may look up with joy and exclaim, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa 25:9

Rose