Turn and Hearken

Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Proverbs 1:23.

The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ. The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of man until, convinced of his own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, he yields himself to the control of God. Then he can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld. He has unrestricted access to Him in whom all fulness dwells.—The Desire of Ages, 300.

If ye then, being human and evil, “know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All “good things” are comprised in this. The Creator, Himself, can give us nothing greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer.—Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 132.

Will you not, without delay, place yourself in right relation to God? Will you not say, “I will give my will to Jesus, and I will do it now,” and from this moment be wholly on the Lord’s side? Disregard custom, and the strong clamoring of appetite and passion…. By steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord’s side, every emotion will be brought into captivity to the will of Jesus. You will then find your feet on solid rock. It will take, at times, every particle of will-power that you possess, but it is God that is working for you, and you will come forth from the molding process a vessel unto honor.—Messages to Young People, 153.