Presence of God by Fenelon

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 17, 1866

Presence of God.

By Fenelon

THE habitual conviction of the presence of God is the sovereign remedy in temptations; it supports, it consoles, it calms us.

We must not be surprised that we are tempted. We are placed here to be proved by temptations. Everything is temptation to us. Crosses irritate our pride, and prosperity flatters it; our life is a continual warfare, but Jesus Christ combats with us. We must let temptations, like a tempest, beat upon our heads, and still move on; like a traveler surprised on the way by a storm, who wraps his cloak about him, and goes on his journey in spite of the opposing elements.

In a certain sense, there is little to do in doing the will of God. Still it is true that it is a great work, because it must be without any reserve. This spirit enters the secret foldings of our hearts, and even the most upright affections, and the most necessary attachments, must be regulated by His will; but it is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not restraint and contention, that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our will, without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God. Let us pray to our Heavenly Father that our wills may be swallowed up in His.—Fenelon.