9. What can make us turn our backs on the good life that God offers and what do we need to remember to prevent this from happening? Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 18.
NOTE: ‘The Lord often tested His people, to see if they would have faith in Him. He allowed the supply of water to fail, that they might be reminded of their past deliverance, and be led to put their trust in God. But their continual blessings, for which they should ever have been grateful, led them to forget their dependence. No sooner did their supply of water fail, than they lost sight of God, and blamed Moses as the cause of their calamity. In the place of trusting God, who had so long and so liberally supplied their wants, they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, and bitterly reviled them for bringing them out of Egypt. O, how easily this unbelief springs into life! This is the danger today. The people of God must keep a constant watch over their hearts, lest they allow Satan to interpose between them and God.’ Signs of the Times, April 7, 1898.
10. How can the opinions of other people weigh in the balance over our souls? John 12:42-43.
NOTE: ‘In Christ’s day the great majority, even of those who professed the service of God, “loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Every believer who finds the light that is sown in the word for the righteous will continually have to choose between these two; but what are the praises of men to the praise of God? Forget the presence of men in the sacredness of God’s presence, and instead of acting for the pleasure of men, think of the host of angels that excel in strength and power, who yet are watching these lives of ours to see the operation of the Gospel. Oh, it is a wicked thing to be ashamed of God, and deny His power because the path He points out leads us out of the broad way along which men delight to go.’ E. J. Waggoner: Present Truth, May 17, 1894.