Let God’s Spirit Do the Fashioning

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13.
The Lord desires His chosen servants to learn how to blend together. A decided influence for good is to be brought to bear on the inhabitants of the world. However diverse the talents of His workers, these workers are to labor in unity, all revealing kindness and love. By different gifts the truth is to be proclaimed, all the gifts controlled by the same Spirit….
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This is a prescription for the healing of all spiritual, mental, and physical ills. It is Christ’s gift to those who seek Him in sincerity and truth. He is the Mighty Healer. Then comes another invitation. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (verses 29, 30). Wearing Christ’s yoke, and learning of Him the lesson of meekness and lowliness, we find rest in faith and confidence and trust. We find that Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden light.
Let those who bear responsibilities remember that it is the Holy Spirit who is to do the fashioning. It is the Lord who controls. We are not to try to mold according to our own ideas those for whom we work. We are to let Christ do the molding. He follows no human pattern. He works according to His own mind and spirit.
It is man’s work to reveal to the world that which Christ has placed in his heart. Through His grace man becomes a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The higher powers of the one who receives Christ are strengthened and ennobled. He receives a fitness for God’s service….
He who was once the covering cherub, whose work it was to hide from the heavenly intelligences the glory of God, perverted his intellect, and divorced himself from God. If a being so exalted could fall so low as to become the author of sin, let not man boast, but learn to wear gracefully the yoke of Christ, revealing His meekness and lowliness, believing on Him, cooperating with Him. “Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20).—Letter 197, September 29, 1901, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
The Upward Look p. 286
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Prayer Requests
—-This is an update on the fire close to my house. My husband finally left our property and we met up and got a hotel room. But my animals are still at the property. I left them a lot of food and water but they are still in danger. So please continue to keep my precious animals in your prayers and all the people who have lost so much already. I already had my house burn down here 7 years ago and lost everything including my animals that I had at the time and all my family and baby pictures which cannot be replaced. I hope and pray that we don’t ever have to go through that again. Please continue praying for us the fire is now on my road and my son is walking in to try and save something! I told him not to but he won’t listen! Please pray for his safety and my poor animals! Connie
—-Please pray for me my face is swollen due to the infection of a fish bone to my gum. Arlene
—-Please pray for David today. Buck
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Dear Friends,
When my great-aunt Blanche became too old to drive, my mother often took her for a little fun. One particular day, they had gone to a restaurant and were driving to my mother’s house for a nice visit, when the car suddenly accelerated to full speed.
They were on the short, quiet side-street on which my mother lived so she was only going 20 or 25 miles per hour. When the car started running at top speed, she was instantly going over 80 and still accelerating. The group of trees at the end of the street loomed dangerously near. My mother tried the brakes, but they were powerless to stop the car’s racing engine. My mother knew if they continued as they were, in just a few moments their lives would be over. Fear and panic swept over her.
Auntie Blanche looked over at my mother and could see the terror written on her face. Calmly she said, “Geneva, what is it that makes the car run? What should you do to keep gas from flowing into the engine?”
My mother looked at her in surprise and turned off the key. As soon as she did that, the car began to slow down. Then my mother could apply the brakes successfully and stop the car by the side of the road. The two ladies sat there for a few minutes trying to calm their racing hearts. Then they walked to my mother’s house a block or two away. This was very difficult for Auntie Blanche, who had rheumatoid arthritis and walked with two canes, but she did not complain: she was too thankful to be alive.
Later, when she had the car towed to the mechanic, he found that a tiny spring on the carburetor had broken causing the car to run wide open. That tiny spring almost caused their death.
How important are the little things! When Lot was hurried out of Sodom, they were told “escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” Gen 19:17. Not looking back toward the city seemed like such a small prohibition, so unimportant, yet, when Lot’s wife looked toward the place, she was instantly changed into a pillar of salt! Vs. 26.
Worse, still, Lot himself did not obey the angels’ command to flee to the mountains. He begged the angels to allow him and his daughters to dwell in the little town of Zoar. He was sure that such a little town (which was supposed to be destroyed along with all of the other wicked cities of the plain) could not be as bad as the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Later, realizing the wickedness of Zoar, Lot took his two daughters to the mountains, but it was too late. It was in that very city of Zoar that Lot’s daughters became corrupted so much that they did not hesitate to commit incest with their father.
So it is in our life. It is the little day to day decisions for good or for ill that determine our future. It is those little decisions that we hardly even notice that are laying the foundation for the type of choice we will make when in a crisis. It is those mundane choices that seem so unimportant, that sin we think we can do “just once,” the sins we think are not worth giving up that determine where we will spend eternity.
May we “give diligence to make our calling and election sure.” 2 Peter 1:10. In all that we do and say, may we remember that as “little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” so a little sin can ruin our life. Gal 5:9 May we determine to obey in the seemingly little things of life as well as in the bigger issues is my prayer.
Rose