DYING DAILY by Delia Rees

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 8, 1901

DYING DAILY

By Delia Rees

Delia Rees, in Triumphs of Faith

It is the sense of necessity laid upon us that compels us always to find new strength and fresh hope and greater courage; in fact, it is only necessity laid upon us that opens the door to the knowledge of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Notice the marvelous record: We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, not forsaken; cast down, not destroyed; bearing in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifest (in the same body).

Oh, are these not crowning sentences, rich in golden paradoxy? Are you troubled on every side? A painful state is that. But look well; there is great peace and comfort at your hand.

Perplexed, and do not know what to do? Look earnestly and in faith; you are “not altogether without help or means,” as the margin has it.

There is a way of wisdom, and when you thoroughly arise to the occasion and shake yourself, you will find it.

Persecuted? Friends dropping off? But look the other way. He is nearer to you than ever—“not forsaken.”

Cast down? Your prospects blighted? Your faith almost shaken out of you? Hold steady; you are far from being destroyed. For we which live in Christ are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake. And why?—“That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in your mortal flesh.” For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace of God might be made known to you.

And because of this, let us faint not; for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, as we shall see by and by, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we learn to look for unseen things, and in thus looking find that which is eternal.

So much for our riches; but there is another phase of the matter of necessity and suffering that is equally, if not more, desirable than our gain, and it is stated in the words: “So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” This death in me, then, may work life in some one else also. This that has been so hard to bear, perhaps, has left behind wider possibilities of service for me. By my very necessities I shall come into closer touch with men and women about me, and my enlarged heart shall bear new and fresh supplies of the water of life to others.

Thank God! Then let us learn to take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake; for when we are weak, then we are strong.