When You Are Tempted

The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. The Ministry of Healing, p. 471

In Christ, God has promised means for subduing every evil trait and resisting every temptation, however strong. The Ministry of Healing, pp. 65, 66

Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was. The Desire of Ages, p. 664

Those who fail to realize their constant dependence upon God will be overcome by temptation. We may now suppose that our feet stand secure, and that we shall never be moved. We may say with confidence, I know in whom I have believed .... But Satan is planning to take advantage of our hereditary and cultivated traits of character, and to blind our eyes to our own necessities and defects. Only through realizing our own weakness and looking steadfastly unto Jesus can we walk securely. The Desire of Ages, p. 382

The Father’s presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ.

The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord’s permission. Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 71

Christ will never abandon those for whom He has died. We may leave Him and be overwhelmed with temptation, but Christ can never turn from one for whom He has paid the ransom of His own life. Prophets and Kings, p.176

Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of such a one, rather than allow him to be overcome. Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 17

Our heavenly Father measures and weighs every trial before He permits it to come upon the believer. He considers the circumstances and the strength of the one who is to stand under the proving and test of God, and He never permits the temptations to be greater than the capacity of resistance.

If the soul is overborne, the person overpowered, this can never be charged to God, as failing to give strength in grace, but the one tempted was not vigilant and prayerful and did not appropriate by faith the provisions God had abundantly in store for him.

Christ never failed a believer in his hour of combat. The believer must claim the promise and meet the foe in the name of the Lord, and he will not know anything like failure. Ellen G. White manuscript 6, 1889

Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed under oppression and burdened with grief . . . We should see angels flying quickly to the aid of these tempted ones, forcing back the hosts of evil that encompass them, and placing their feet on the sure foundation.Prophets and Kings, p. 176

If You Have Sinned

We should ever bear in mind that we are all erring mortals, and that Christ exercises much pity for our weakness, and loves us although we err.Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 383

We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. . . . We are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. Steps to Christ, p.64

By prayer, by the study of His word, by faith in His abiding presence, the weakest of human beings may live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold them by a hand that will never let go. The Ministry of Healing, p. 182

So long as we do not consent to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a stain upon the soul. Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 32

The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. . . . We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end. The Desire of Ages, p. 324

If one who daily communes with God errs from the path, if he turns a moment from looking steadfastly unto Jesus, it is not because he sins willfully; for when he sees his mistake, he turns again, and fastens his eyes upon Jesus, and the fact that he has erred, does not make him less dear to the heart of God. Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, May 12, 1896

If in our ignorance we make missteps, Christ does not leave us. Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 173

Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will; and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. Steps to Christ, p. 34

Many, walking along the path of life, dwell upon their mistakes and failures and disappointments, and their hearts are filled with grief and discouragement. ... It is not wise to gather together all the unpleasant recollections of a past life-its iniquities and disappointments to talk over them and mourn over them until we are overwhelmed with discouragement.

A discouraged soul is filled with darkness, shutting out the light of God from his own soul and casting a shadow upon the pathway of others. Steps to Christ pp. 116, 117.