“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10) All those years when I yielded myself as a servant to sin, I have been defrauding Christ of His right. But He has been going about searching for me, and seeking to draw me to Him. And when we say, “Lord, here I am, I give myself to You,” that very moment Christ has found us as we are His servants.
But how do we know that we are going to continue in His service? Just in the same way that we know we have lived a life of sin.
When we were servants of sin, we were free from righteousness, because Satan used us at the mercy of his power. But is sin stronger than righteousness? Is Satan stronger than Christ? No! Just as surely as when we were the bond-servants of sin, it kept us free from righteousness, so when we yield ourselves to Christ, He has power to keep us from sin.
The battle is not ours, it is God’s. We will not only say, I do not want to be Satan’s servants, but, I will not be his servant. We yield ourselves to Christ, and repeat over and over again, “O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds” (Ps. 116:16). So in the hour of trial we have a victory that is already gained.
The strength of a Christian lies in submitting- the victory lies in yielding to Christ. But it does not matter how great the trial may be, if we have Christ there will be peace in our hearts.
“Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place” (2 Cor. 2:14).
Waggoner, General Conference Bulletin, 1891, No. 10