11. Find the seven-word phrase in this scripture that explains why God is mindful of us. Psalm 8:4-6.
NOTE: ‘The reported words of a sister attending the first meeting where she had heard of God’s care and mindfulness for us: “I am sorry to have had no stronger faith. I must have a greater nearness to God. My whole heart must be in the work. ‘What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?’ I feel that I must put aside all fear of the world, and serve my Master faithfully. This is the first meeting of the kind that I ever attended, and I have been amply repaid.”’ Review & Herald, May 25, 1876.
12. What did God wish for those mired in sin? Isaiah 48:18.
NOTE: ‘Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” Isaiah 26:3. Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. And that character which expresses the glory, the character, of Christ will be received into the Paradise of God. A renovated race shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. As through Jesus, we enter into rest, heaven begins here. We respond to His invitation, Come, learn of Me, and in thus coming, we begin the life eternal.’ Desire of Ages, page 33
13. What is our High Priest, soon to be King, wishful of bestowing upon us? Revelation 21:7; Matthew 25:21; Revelation 22:14.
NOTE: ‘“Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.” Revelation 15:2, 3. “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Revelation 14:1. In this world their minds were consecrated to God; they served Him with the intellect and with the heart; and now He can place His name “in their foreheads.” “And they shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 22:5. They do not go in and out as those who beg a place. They are of that number to whom Christ says, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” He welcomes them as His children, saying, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matthew 25:34, 21. Acts of the Apostles, page 590.
LESSON INSIGHT: The Father has seen His sons and daughters fall into the hands of the enemy. They cannot break free, and the gulf is wide between sinners and the God of heaven. We feel unrest and long for something better. Our Father in His love has sent us an Elder Brother. He came like us, He met our enemy, He was tempted as we are. But His time on this earth was not all. It was His preparation for His role in heaven. He was about to become our High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary And so today we pray, ‘In the Name of Jesus’. All that He experienced has enabled Him to hear our cries for mercy and to help and to be able to identify with our need. He knows exactly the things we are wrestling with. He knows first-hand for He has faced the enemy on our behalf, and overcome every attack and every deceitful wile and every fiery dart. It was prophesied, ‘A body Thou hast prepared for Me.’ You think no-one understands you? Jesus does.