Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

either individually or collectively, experience true spiritual rest. They will let God make their plans for them and conse quently they will know no such thing as failure, loss, impossi bility, or defeat. “The omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit is the defense of ev ery contrite soul. Not one that in penitence and faith has claimed His protection will Christ permit to pass under the en emy’s power. The Saviour is by the side of His tempted and tried ones. With Him there can be no such thing as failure, loss, im possibility, or defeat; we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. When temptations and trials come, do not wait to adjust all the difficulties, but look to Jesus, your helper.” The Desire of Ages , 490.5. Sadly, as with Israel, this is not usually the case. Because God’s people are full of zeal, self-sacrifice, and faith to do His work, they feel certain that He is pleased with the efforts they are putting forth on His behalf. They begin to make their own plans, thus unwittingly exalting themselves to God’s place. When their plans fail, they intensify their efforts, in the illogical assumption that if this much planning has failed to effect the de sired result, then more of the same planning will achieve it. This course has been adopted too often in the past, even though the clear lesson of history shows that it does not work. Instead, it builds Satan’s kingdom. By falling into this snare, God’s chil dren become Satan’s most able allies. If His people give expression to their faith by forming their own specific orders, they will inevitably experience faith-shat tering failure. They will be puzzled because they cannot under stand why the outcome has been the opposite of their expecta tions. According to their concepts, everything has been done cor rectly. They are thus led to question God’s character and doubt His word, with the result that they become even more prone to turn to their own works in the future. God’s children need to be grounded in the knowledge that there is certainly nothing wrong with His beautiful character. God is neither capricious, cruel, nor unreliable. Leading us to doubt Him is Satan’s clever device to divert our attention away from the only area which we should doubt—the area of human procedures. If God’s professed children would closely