Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

644 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[704]do for you that which He has left for you to do. Brother C deservespity. He has so long felt unhappy that life has become a burden tohim. It need not be thus. His imagination is diseased, and he has solong kept his eyes on the dark picture that if he meets with adversityor disappointment, he imagines that everything is going to ruin, thathe will come to want, that everything is against him, that he has thehardest time of anyone; and thus his life is made wretched. The morehe thinks thus, the more miserable he makes his life and the livesof all around him. He has no reason to feel as he does; it is all thework of Satan. He must not suffer the enemy thus to control his mind.He should turn away from the dark and gloomy picture to that of theloving Saviour, the glory of heaven, and the rich inheritance preparedfor all who are humble and obedient, and who possess grateful heartsand abiding faith in the promises of God. This will cost him an effort,a struggle; but it must be done. Your present happiness and your future,eternal happiness depend upon your fixing your mind upon cheerfulthings, looking away from the dark picture, which is imaginary, to thebenefits which God has strewn in your pathway, and beyond these, tothe unseen and eternal.You belong to a family who possess minds not well balanced,gloomy and depressed, affected by surroundings, and susceptible toinfluences. Unless you cultivate a cheerful, happy, grateful frame ofmind, Satan will eventually lead you captive at his will. You can be ahelp, a strength to the church where you reside, if you will obey theinstructions of the Lord and not move by feeling, but be controlledby principle. Never allow censure to escape your lips, for it is likedesolating hail to those around you. Let cheerful, happy, loving wordsfall from your lips.Brother C, your organism is not the best for your spiritual advancement,yet the grace of God can do much to correct the defects in yourcharacter and strengthen and more perfectly develop those powers ofmind which are now weak and need force. In so doing you will bringinto control those lower qualities which have overpowered the higher.You are like a man whose sensibilities are benumbed. You need tohave the truth take hold of you and work a thorough reformation inyour life. “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformedby the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” This is what you need, and