Gods Sabbath

D AVID ’ S L OSS OF F AITH

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us, for if we do, we will certainly fail. The more we study the lives of God’s faithful followers in the Bible, the more we will see how their experiences prove this point and the more we will learn to trust in our heavenly Protector. Every time these believers looked away from their distressing and dangerous situations and focused their attention on the power and majesty of God as they had known it in their past ex periences, God was able to achieve marvelous victories for and through them. The experiences they carefully and prayerfully reviewed included what God had done for them personally, and what they had known Him to do in the lives of Bible characters and personal friends. By faithful and consistent study of the Scriptures and review of their own past victories, they had kept these experiences fresh, alive, and available, so that when the hour of distress and temptation came, they were armed with faith for the conflict. But with equal consistency, every time they dwelt on their dif ficult situations and imagined the worst, they came under Sa tan’s control and followed his instructions. This is precisely what happened to Israel at Kadesh Barnea. When the forbidding prospect of trying to wrest the land from the Canaanites was presented to them, they did not remove their minds from this gloomy picture and think in terms of God’s faithful protection and leadership up to that point in time. Instead, they chose to dwell upon the dark image before them, and therefore God, His glorious promises, His mighty power, and His faithful working for them in the past, were all forgotten. Their faith plummeted and the only possible outcome for them was failure and delay. When correctly understood, these stories will deeply impress the mind with the vital importance of taking the right steps in the hour of temptation. This can be accomplished only if the mind is trained aright before that time, by learning to trust in our great Problem Solver for solutions to the inevitable difficul ties we face from day to day. “We must accustom ourselves to seek divine guidance through prayer; we must learn to trust in Him from whom our help co meth. Our desires should be unto God; our souls should go out after him, and their attitude should always be that of supplica tion.” The Signs of the Times , May 15, 1884 par.2.