02/05/2026
Happy Sabbath friends and welcome to the SOP nugget of the week✨
As we close the final chapters of Spiritual Gifts, we are met with a lot of lessons worth looking at today. Throughout these closing chapters, 3 clear themes emerge which I would like us to take a moment to reflect on.
1. Faith over Fear
We read about many dangers this week. Dangers to ministers, dangers to children, and dangers to every believer in Christ. And when we look around us, it can feel like with each passing year, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a Christian.
In the 1800s, Ellen White wrote, "We are living in an unfortunate age for children". How much more true is that today than it was then?
It is a sobering thought and one that may be met with fear. But where there is reason for fear, there is even greater reason for faith. Jesus knows all our struggles, and he truly wants to help us . One of the easiest ways we can demontrate our faith in Him is through prayer.
"By faith bind your children upon the altar,
entreating for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who
are thus dedicated to God. It is the duty of Christian parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge about their children. They should patiently instruct them-kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God."
2. Surrender over Self
While not all of us are called to pastoral work, we are all called to ministry. One truly saddening realization is that as Christians, we have become so accustomed to comfort that even the smallest inconvenience deters us from doing the work God has called us to do. This stands in great contrast to the life that Christ led.
"While the Author of our salvation was laboring and suffering for us, he denied himself, and his whole life was one continued scene of toil and privation. He could have passed his days on earth in ease and plenty, and appropriated to himself the pleasures of this life; but he considered not his own convenience. He lived to do others good. He suffered to save others from suffering. He endured to the end. He finished the work which was given him to do. All this was to save us from ruin. And now, can it be that we, the unworthy objects of so great love, will seek a better position in this life, than was given to our Lord? Every moment of our lives we have been partakers of the blessings of his great love, and for this very reason we cannot fully realize the depths of ignorance and misery we have been saved from. Can we look upon him whom our sins have pierced, and not be willing to drink with him the bitter cup of humiliation and sorrow? Can we look upon Christ crucified, and wish to enter his kingdom in any other way than through much tribulation"
3. Light over Darkness
Finally, there is a reminder of who we are in Christ and how we are called to live.
"God’s people dwell too much under a cloud. It is not the will of God for his people to live in unbelief. Jesus is light, and in him is no darkness at all. His children are the children of light. They are renewed in his image, and called out of darkness into his marvelous light. He is the light of the world, and they that follow him are the light of the world. They shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The more closely the people of God strive to imitate Christ, the more perseveringly will they be pursued by the enemy. But their nearness to Christ strengthens them to resist the efforts of our wily foe to draw them from Christ."
