Dependence Upon God Reflected In Nature
For without me you can do nothing. John 15:5
The first lesson to be taught is the lesson of dependence upon God. As a flower of the field has its root in the soil; as it must receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine, so must we receive from God that which ministers to the life of the soul.
The presence of God is guaranteed to the Christian. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalms 46:1)
This Rock of faith is the living presence of God. The weakest may depend upon it. Those who think themselves the strongest may become the weakest unless they depend on Christ as their efficiency, their worthiness.
This is the Rock upon which we may build successfully. God is near in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, in His intercession, His loving, tender ruling power over the church. Seated by the eternal throne, He watches them with intense interest.
As long as the members of the church shall through faith draw nourishment from Jesus Christ, (Mat 4:4) and not from people’s opinions and devising and methods. If having a conviction of the nearness of God in Christ, they put their entire trust in Him, they will have a vital connection with Christ as the branch has connection with the parent stock.
The church is established not on theories of humanity, or on long-drawn-out plans and forms. It depends upon Christ their righteousness. The Church is built on faith in Christ
“and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mat 16:18)
The strength of every soul is in God and not in humanity. Quietness and confidence is to be the strength of all who give their hearts to God. “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isa 30:15).
God designs that the scenes of nature should influence the children of God to delight in the pure, simple, quiet beauty with which our Father adorns our earthly home. Jesus tells us that the mightiest king that ever swayed a specter could not compare in gorgeous array to the simple flowers that God has clothed with loveliness. We wish to learn God’s lesson out of His book.
The heavens above are pure and lovely, in faint colors presented to our senses here upon the earth, and we may put the imagination to the highest stretch to grasp the glories which these represent in the paradise of God; and yet the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those who love Him.{5MR 20.2}
Our Savior has purchased us by human suffering and sorrow, by insult, reproach, abuse, mockery, rejection and death. (Isa 53). He is watching over you, trembling child of God. He will make you secure under His protection.
Our weakness in human nature will not bar our access to the heavenly Father, for He [Christ] died to make intercession for us.
[JESUS] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:25)
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Cor 12:9)
Nature is filled with spiritual lessons for mankind. The flowers die only to spring forth into new life; and in this we are taught the lesson of the resurrection. All who love God will bloom again in the Eden above. But nature can not teach the lesson of the great and marvelous love of God.
Therefore, after the fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world might not remain in darkness, in eternal spiritual night, the God of nature met us in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to the world as the revelation of the Father. He was that “true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” We are to behold “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” {RH, November 8, 1898 par. 5}
Christ pointed His disciples to the flowers of the field, growing in rich profusion and glowing in the simple beauty which the heavenly Father had given them, as an expression of His love to man. He said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” The beauty and simplicity of these natural flowers far out rival the splendor of Solomon. The most gorgeous attire produced by the skill of art cannot bear comparison with the natural grace and radiant beauty of the flowers of God’s creation. Jesus asks, “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Matthew 6:28,30.
If God, the divine Artist, gives to the simple flowers that perish in a day their delicate and varied colors, how much greater care will He have for those who are created in His own image? This lesson of Christ’s is a rebuke to the anxious thought, the perplexity and doubt, of the faithless heart. {SC 123.2}
The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Jesus says, “My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 14:27; 15:11. {SC 124.1}