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Consecration

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 25, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 12.

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Consecration

By Florence Ketring-Harper

FLORENCE KETRING-HARPER
The daily life of the Christian is a life of surrender. There will be a giving up of self and selfish plans,—a laying of all at the feet of Jesus.
We do not know the way we should go. We do not know what lies before us. We have not wisdom or discernment to choose what is best, and to discard that which is of least worth among the many things forced on our attention as we go through the day. By choosing our own way, and withholding from God a surrender of self, we lose much time, and overlook valuable opportunities of doing good to others and of building up our own characters.
If we are too busy to cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of Christ by communion with him in meditation and prayer, our lives will be filled with fretfulness, anxiety, fear, and care. This is not God’s will. “My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord,” says the psalmist.
We do not know the beautiful things he would tell us,—the things that would make us strong, and our lives bright and helpful and a song of praise and gladness in spite of the trials and cares he lets come,—if we only had the wisdom to stop and listen; and this wisdom he will give if we only will let him begin the day for us, and go through it with us.
Many the temptations that would be warded off by the angel at our side,—temptations that are “more than we are able to bear;” many the cares that would be lifted; rich and refreshing the sweetness that would come into our lives instead of the bitterness, if we would only let God rule our days.
In the words of another: “Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. . . . Surrender all your plans to him, to be carried out or given up as his providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.”
Wichita, Kan.