Look to Jesus Christ

I am instructed to say that we must not look to any human being for power or experience, depending on them for strength and guidance. Christ says, “Look unto Me. I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.” I speak to those who claim to be children of God. Is it not time that we know the Source of our strength and the Source of our power? Shall we not, from this time forward, make a record more pleasing to the Lord?

Scenes are presented to me that I can find no language to describe. Trials will come that will humble all hearts that are lifted up. Let no one feel that he is safe in following his own way, or in making man his trust. The Lord calls for men of experience, men who will carry responsibilities in His name and in His strength, men who will receive His grace with a realization of their accountability to impart it to others….

The Word of the living God is to be our guide. Each one is to realize his dependence upon Him, whose he is by creation and by redemption. Read and study the statements made in the sixth chapter of John. Pray for an understanding of these truths. I am alarmed as I see the spiritual weakness of those who have had such great light. Had they walked in this light, they would have been strong in the Lord. But they have not, and those who come into the truth through their efforts look to human beings for wisdom, instead of looking to Jesus Christ, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). When those who claim to believe in Christ receive Him by faith, He will be to them their sanctification, their righteousness, and their exceeding great reward….

The Lord’s agencies, the men of His appointment, are individually to receive wisdom from Him. They greatly dishonor Him when they trust in human devising as assurance. They are to see Him distinctly as their sufficiency, their strength.

Are you representing Christ? Have you broken away from the spirit and influence of worldly policy plans and from human devising? Are you eating daily of the bread of Life? …

Let the prayer come from unfeigned lips, “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works” (Psalm 119:27). “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (verse 11).—Manuscript 78, June 16, 1902, “The Health Food Question.”
The Upward Look p. 181
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for me. I am going through some terrible things. Connie
—-Please keep my great-granddaughter Harmony and also my granddaughter Destiny and her family in your prayers. …Pray for strength for her and her husband. ….From Destiny: “So yesterday was a long day and night. We rushed my 2 year old to the ER for being EXTREMELY lethargic, vommiting, spacing out etc. Turns out her blood sugar was 1,300 which is extremely deadly if not treated. Especially for her size. Normal sugar is between 80-110. Basically she had diabetic ketoasidosis. It was confirmed she has type 1 diabetes. There was nothing different I could have done with her. Her pancreas just stopped producing insulin on its own. Please just pray for our family. This is a huge change in our life to get the hang of. We’re still at the children’s hospital, hoping to go home tomorrow. If we wouldn’t have brought her in last night, she would have most likely been dead by this morning.” Claire
—-Authorities say a 4-year-old Tennessee boy has died after a tornado ripped through his home on Easter.
His father is still fighting for his life, and the community is asking for your prayers.
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Dear Friends,
Our grandchildren enjoy the Amazing Adventures meeting that Amazing Facts has done. They often watch it. Pastor Doug, as part of one of his presentations, showed a doll that someone had given to his wife a few years ago. It was called the perfect man doll. Whenever its stomach was pressed, the doll would say things that a wife would want to hear such as “You shouldn’t be cleaning that, let’s hire a maid” or “I can watch football any time, let’s go shopping.” It was so funny! At first his wife laughed at it. After a few days, however, it was no longer as funny. As she would play with that doll, she knew exactly what it would say. Soon, she was playing with the doll any longer. She put it in a drawer and forgot all about it.
As I was watching the program, I realized how much like that doll we can become when we pray. We tend to pray for the same things in the same way. It’s not that what we pray for is not good or that we are not sincere, but how often by praying the same phrases in the same order, our prayer become a routine and almost unthinking as if we were that doll.
Jesus spoke of this very principle. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them.” Matt 6:7, 8 On the way to work every morning, I pass by a Buddhist temple. At certain times there are hundreds of prayer flags waving in the wind. Are our prayers like those heathen flags because of our repeating the same things day in and day out?
Paul bids us to “pray without ceasing.” 1 Thes 5:17 How can we pray without ceasing and not be repetitious? We must believe with all of our heart that God will answer. “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 “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Heb 11:6
We must abide in Christ. Jesus promises, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” John 15:7 Think of it! If we ask, we will receive. (Matt 7:7) Sometimes, we must press our heartfelt petitions many times before that Father’s throne. “Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:5-13
Our prayers must not be selfish, self-centered prayers. James explains, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3
Sometimes, we do not receive exactly what we ask for, yet God answers with a “no” or wait awhile” or “here is something better” because only He can see the end from the beginning.
May we keep asking, seeking, and knocking for the right things until we see and understand God’s answer to our prayers. May we believe that we receive them because He is is faithful Who has promised. May we claim His precious promises that are found in His Holy Word.
Rose