p. 39 | Thy Will Be Done by A. S. Nason

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1875

Thy Will Be Done.

By A. S. Nason

How many among professed Christians can say from the heart, Thy will, not mine, be done. I fear that very few of the followers of our divine Lord and Master offer up the prayer which he taught his disciples, ages in the past, with a realizing sense of its deep import. It is an easy matter to talk of surrendering all to God; but when we really come to the point of giving ourselves and all that we have and are a living sacrifice without any reserve, it costs a struggle that requires all the powers of our being to maintain. The reason why so few Christians make a success of their profession is because, like Ananias and Sapphira, they keep back a part of the price. We cannot know ourselves until we are proved. It is the fiery ordeal of God’s discipline that will bring to light our secret faults, and expose the frailty of human nature.

Oh! how many times do we need to go down into the garden of Gethsemane, and there agonize in prayer as did our beloved Saviour when he sweat great drops of blood, that we may be enabled to gain the victory over selfishness in every form, and be his disciples in deed and in truth. We hear people speaking very indifferently of the Christian life. They seem to have very little sense of the importance of everlasting salvation. I would that a compelling power might get hold of these careless souls and arouse them to a sense of their terrible danger.

Is eternal life of so little value that it is not worth all the efforts that can be made to obtain it? Is this brief life, filled up with care and toil and sorrow, to be weighed in the balance with the glorious hereafter? But some will tell us that they have no realizing sense of any world but this; that what is hidden in the mysterious future, cannot take hold of their minds or rouse them to action. If such would take the word of God and search for truth as earnestly as they do for the treasures of this world, their minds would become transformed, and there would open before their view a scene surpassing in beauty and purity all that human tongue or pen can describe.

It is an age of great moral darkness. The majority of people are entirely dead to a sense of the terrible time in which we live. Even among professed Sabbath-keepers, how few there are entirely devoted to God, having no desire but to do his will. It seems as though the great portion of us have but just begun to learn of the great sacrifices we need to make in order that we may be overcomers, and have right to the tree of life. What shall we do? Because that of ourselves we are weak and helpless, and in our blindness so often stumble and make crooked paths, shall we settle down and give up the struggle? My soul cries out, Never! never! While life lasts I will strive to pursue the Christian course. It may be that for me is laid up a crown of glory, and a palm of victory.

With these thoughts to stimulate me to action, I will gird the armor on anew, and keep repeating, Thy will, O God, be done, until I can shout victory over everything pertaining to a selfish nature, and become so entirely the Lord’s that it shall be more than my meat and drink to do his pleasure. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Heb. 3: 14.

A. S. Nason.

Ipswich, Mass.