Flee also youthful lusts: but follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
A little time spent in sowing your wild oats, dear young friends, will produce a crop that will embitter 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….
Satan…transforms himself into an angel of light and comes to the youth with his specious temptations and succeeds in winning them, step by step, from the path of duty. He is described as an accuser, a deceiver, a liar, a tormentor, and a murderer. …It is Satan’s act to tempt you, but your own act to yield. It is not in the power of all the host of Satan to force the tempted to transgress. There is no excuse for sin.
Temptation is not sin. Jesus was holy and pure; yet He was tempted in all points as we are, but with a strength and power that man will never be called upon to endure. In His successful resistance He has left us a bright example, that we should follow in His steps. If we are self-confident or self-righteous we shall be left to fall under the power of temptation; but if we look to Jesus and trust in Him we call to our aid a power that has conquered the foe on the field of battle, and with every temptation He will make a way of escape. When Satan comes in like a flood, we must meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, and Jesus will be our helper and will lift up for us a standard against him.
One wrong trait of character, one sinful desire cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel…. The pains of duty and the pleasures of sin are the cords with which Satan binds men in his snares. Those who would rather die than perform a wrong act are the only ones who will be found faithful.
The youth may have principles so firm that the most powerful temptations of Satan will not draw them away from their allegiance.
Maranatha p. 82
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for D and M who are going through great changes. L
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Dear Friends,
Often I hear young mothers say how happy they will be when their little ones will be grown. They are sure that when their “job” of child-raising is over and they will be able to sit back and relax and never worry about their children. They will be able to do the things they want to do, go the places they want to go.
When I assure them that that time will never come, they really don’t believe it. When I tell them that I had felt much the same way but now realize that “once a mother always a mother” keeps me from never worrying. My heart is bound very closely to theirs. As my children have grown, each has had their individual trials and tribulations. During these times, I vicariously go through these difficulties as well. When they have cried, I have cried. When they have hurt, I have hurt. When they rejoice, I rejoice. I am always thinking of ways to make life happier or easier for them as much as I possibly can.
Even more than we love our children and want all to go well for them, our Heavenly Father loves us with an everlasting love. Day by day, in countless ways, He draws us to Himself by His Lovingkindness. (Jer 31:3) Think of it! He cares for each of us, as though there were no other person in the world. Jesus assures us that He knows us so well that even “the very hairs of [our] head are all numbered.” Matt 10:30.
The Psalmist David declares, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether…. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell (the grave), behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. Ps 103:13; 139:1-18
May we trust our very lives with the One Who loves us so much. May we invite Him into our hearts today. He pleads, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Rev 3:20. How He longs to fellowship with us! May we open the door and let the Dear Saviour come in.
Rose