The Kingdom of God - Your First Consideration

Think carefully about this thought: God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as coworkers with Him. If in your heart you want to receive Jesus, you must receive all the conditions, all the requirements, and make it your life business in everything to make the kingdom of God your first consideration. Difficulties will (definitely) present themselves as obstructions, but your greatest difficulties will originate from your own selfishness. Jesus demands your heart, your soul, your (weak) strength, and your mind, which will be a cost of all there is that will well up from within you. You must always realize you are not your own, for you were bought with a tremendous price and therefore you are to glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. The cost you will pay will be self-humiliation, self-denial, and self-sacrifice which will be a constant conflict with your human passions. Your natural temperaments cannot be carried along the road, cast there for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. For shame, weakness, and disgrace are the sure result of professedly following Christ while walking in the ways and practices of the unrenewed, and unconverted man or woman (My version from words penned by Ellen G. White out of Bible Training School, October, 1916). Sherry