This Day With God

Probation and Perfection, March 22

Do you give service? Give it as in the strength which God supplies. In all things so act that the glory may be God's through Jesus Christ; to him belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11, N.E.B. TDG 90.1

All the varied capabilities that men possess, soul, body, and spirit, are given them of God to be so educated and trained that they may reach the highest possible degree of excellence. The human agency must cooperate with the divine purpose, and in so doing man is pronounced a laborer together with God. Every faculty, every attribute with which God has endowed us is to be used to His name's glory. Man must cooperate with Christ to restore the moral image of God in man, and it is in wearing the yoke of Christ, and learning daily Christ's meekness and lowliness, that Christ can use him to be a blessing to his fellow men. TDG 90.2

Taught first by Christ, and then guarding his own mind and soul, he shall serve a holy purpose in lifting his own thought to that which is pure and elevating, and through words and example awaken in the soul of his fellow men devotion and gratitude to God. In thus doing he is a laborer together with God. He is not to employ one entrusted gift to exalt self, to seek praise of men, but to exalt God, to inspire minds—not to think of what glory he may bring to himself, but how he can prove himself a blessing to his fellow men and become the most successful agency to draw souls to contemplate heavenly things. He must teach others in words and deeds to walk in Christ's footsteps. Then his own mind will become well-balanced, and his endowments will be appreciated as the gift of God to be employed in God's great plan to help in every way possible. By harmonious action with God in His great plan, he will fill his appointed place. He will bring himself back, through the grace of God given him to the perfection of Christ's character. Uplifted himself, through the grace of God, he is prepared to uplift by his own transformation of character his fellow men both by precept and example. TDG 90.3

All the gifts of God are to be exercised to produce as well as to consume. In no case can this work become a self-centered work, or exclusive of his fellow workmen.... TDG 90.4

This probationary life is given to bring man back to this perfection which is to be the character of all who shall be saved. The law of God is a reflection of His character.—Letter 46, March 22, 1900, to David Steed, an Australian believer. TDG 90.5