Section 12—Problems in Adjustment
Chapter 60—Conflict and Conformity
Conflict Rightly Met Develops Steadfastness—Through conflict the spiritual life is strengthened. Trials well borne will develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual graces. The perfect fruit of faith, meekness, and love often matures best amid storm clouds and darkness.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 61 (1900).
Waging a War—It is not mimic battles in which we are engaged. We are waging a warfare upon which hang eternal results. We have unseen enemies to meet. Evil angels are striving for the dominion of every human being.—The Ministry of Healing, 128 (1905).
Conflicts Not Created by Christ—We are living in a solemn time. An important work is to be done for our own souls and for the souls of others, or we shall meet with an infinite loss. We must be transformed by the grace of God, or we shall fail of heaven, and through our influence others will fail with us.
Let me assure you that the struggles and conflicts which must be endured in the discharge of duty, the self-denials and sacrifices which must be made if we are faithful to Christ, are not created by Him. They are not imposed by arbitrary or unnecessary command; they do not come from the severity of the life which He requires us to lead in His service. Trials would exist in greater power and number were we to refuse obedience to Christ and become the servants of Satan and the slaves of sin.—Testimonies for the Church 4:557, 558 (1881).
Life Is a Conflict—This life is a conflict, and we have a foe who never sleeps, who is watching constantly to destroy our minds and lure us away from our precious Saviour, who has given His life for us.—Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 291 (1915).
Prepare the Soul for Peace—The Lord permits conflicts to prepare the soul for peace.—The Great Controversy, 663 (1888).
Religious Experience Gained Only Through Conflict—With energy and fidelity our youth should meet the demands upon them, and this will be a guarantee of success. Young men who have never made a success in the temporal duties of life will be equally unprepared to engage in the higher duties. A religious experience is gained only through conflict, through disappointment, through severe discipline of self, through earnest prayer. The steps to heaven must be taken one at a time, and every advance step gives strength for the next.—Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 100 (1913).
Have Happiness Now—I do not look to the end for all the happiness; I get happiness as I go along. Notwithstanding that I have trials and afflictions, I look away to Jesus. It is in the strait, hard places that He is right by our side, and we can commune with Him, lay all our burdens upon the Burden Bearer, and say, “Here, Lord, I cannot carry these burdens longer.” Then He says to us, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Do you believe it? I have tested it. I love Him; I love Him. I see in Him matchless charms. And I want to praise Him in the kingdom of God.—Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 292 (1915).
Two Antagonistic Principles—The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. The gospel of the grace of God, with its spirit of self-abnegation, can never be in harmony with the spirit of the world. The two principles are antagonistic. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).—The Desire of Ages, 509 (1898).
Conform Not in Principles and Customs—Like Israel, Christians too often yield to the influence of the world and conform to its principles and customs in order to secure the friendship of the ungodly, but in the end it will be found that these professed friends are the most dangerous of foes.
The Bible plainly teaches that there can be no harmony between the people of God and the world. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). Our Saviour says, “Ye know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Satan works through the ungodly, under cover of a pretended friendship, to allure God’s people into sin that he may separate them from Him; and when their defense is removed, then he will lead his agents to turn against them and seek to accomplish their destruction.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 559 (1890).
https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/78.951#951
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the divine privilege to be transformed into your image. Please bless us with fiscernment and determination to be guided by You alone. Please bless us to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendecies to sin and to trust You, regardless of circumstances. Please grant to us that strength of abiding faith. Teach us how to submit to and trust Your Holy Spirit to work within us to love and show mercy and compassion toward others, according to Your divine purpose. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, please bless us to be all You would have us be, and grant to us the mind and love and faith of Jesus that others might be drawn to You through how we live and what we say, especially in the most trying of circumstances. Because we ask all these in the Awesome name of Your Son, Almighty Jesus the Christ, our Savior, we say Thank You and Amen.
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DID YOU KNOW THIS…?
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?— Amos 3:3 KJV —The WORD OF GOD—It’s the only flesh that is safe to eat (meditate on) to live forever!]
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Do you feel sorrowful, disconnected—without a place to feel at home or useful? I pray this might show you the way forward. Watch…
https://www.youtube.com/live/2QB6fcwVuws?si=fsEvZU-rkI-BngfD
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Thursday, October 15: “Dealing with Tinnitus (Ringing in the Ear)”
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If you want to support Christian radio programming for these final days, please visit
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I coordinate wonderful health and worship events and conferences online and onsite as a gospel medical missionary at Uchee Pines, a total plant-based health retreat, where doctors and practitioners specialize in lifestyle medicine. For event details, visit https://www.ucheepines.org/events
Therefore, if at any time you fail to receive this post as a text, please visit
https://baiom.org/author/audreystovall/
where devotionals are first posted daily (almost without fail). From there devotionals are publicly shared to my page on FB, LinkedIn, and Signal (in My Story), and to a response-restricted group on WhatsApp (once again when I am able to find the time to successfully rebuild it).
NOTE: These began as daily texts to encourage my academy roommate and dear friend of nearly 50 years, until she suddenly passed March 2023. Now I continue to compile and send them to anyone who will receive them and to her family in honor of their mom. Lately, I have begun featuring consecutive chapter portions of a select Bible-based book.
If you agree to continue receiving them, then this is my personal gift to you; and in this way, I not only honor God but the memory of a very dear friend whom I desperately miss.
My personal prayer is that God will bless me to find ways to multiply this gift, so that we all may be encouraged to be found faithful in the sight of a Holy God, whenever Christ returns or our eyes are shut in the sleep of death.
It is a prayerful process that leads me to share from my personal study.
So please feel free to forward to your loved ones or to anyone, as God leads you.
I’m calling them Barb’s Devotionals.