Our experiences every day are of the highest value to us. We must have a daily experience in living with the Lord. We have a tempting devil. He will be tempting us to the end. When one says something to provoke you, shut your lips and say in your mind, “Silence is Eloquence.” Don’t put magazines on your table. Let the magazines alone. It is like eating trash. Now, if we profess to be children of God, we will do just as He teaches us in His word. We will not go to magazines and such light trifling things and feed on these but get something right from the word and commit it to memory and we will find that when the enemy combats us, we can resist him.
When he came to Christ, did he come as a very offensive looking man? No, he came as an angel of glory and said in regard to Christ’s hunger, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” (Matthew 4:3). Did Christ take him right up? Not a word did He say. He only took the scripture, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Verse 4). Think of that. Be full of scripture, not these old magazines. You want to commit to memory scripture.
Satan could not do anything with Christ on that point. Then he took Him up onto a pinnacle of the temple and said to Him. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” God did not want Christ to take up an argument with Satan. Satan continued, “Throw thyself down; it is written that His angels shall have charge over thee.” And so Christ quoted the scriptures, “It is written that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” He would not place Himself in peril to show His greater power. He was hungry. He had fasted forty days. Satan came to Him in His weakness, thinking to get the better of Him, but was disappointed.
“He will keep thee in all thy ways”—not Satan’s ways. Temptations will come to us, and we have got to be storing our minds now with Scripture lessons and the blessing of God will come. . . .
Well, the devil found out that he could not tempt Christ in that way so he took Him up onto a high mountain and showed Him the glory of the world and said, “This is mine. I have the right to give it, and if thou wilt fall down and worship me, I will give it to thee.” Then Christ’s time came. He said, “Get thee hence, Satan. It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Now, these are the very lessons we have got to go over. We must live, every one of us, by the simplicity of true godliness. It brings such a power, for the angels of God are right around us. We are not left to our own dispositions and to have no help. There are angels of God that will encourage every thought that is sent up to God in prayer, even when walking wherever we are. . . . He is just as merciful in heaven as He was here upon earth, just as glad to take hold and help if we will take hold of Him by faith, and because He is in the heavens, it is not at all for you to feel that you are left alone to struggle and struggle and struggle with difficulties. Thank God you can speak a word in season to someone around you. You can fight the devil in that very way. “It is written.” You can thus meet the enemy with words out of the Scripture, and you will become strengthened; your living experience will grow day by day, and you will find that you are perfecting such a character that you can be transferred to the future immortal life, and there is no danger of your being overthrown by the devil there. Then let every-one, young and old, put entire trust in the word and let all heaven see that you understand the word of the living God, that you have studied it, and that you will meet the devil on his own ground by a power that he has no influence to oppose. He can’t do it. Why? Your hand has a hold on the Infinite; by living faith you grasp a power, and Satan cannot come in to lead you away from that word while you have it in your mind and heart and your lips.”—The Wisconsin Recorder, August 25, 1909. [Emphasis supplied.]
The strength acquired in prayer to God will prepare us for our daily duties. The temptations to which we are daily exposed make prayer a necessity. In order that we may be kept by the power of God through faith, the desires of the mind should be continually ascending in silent prayer. When we are surrounded by influences calculated to lead us away from God, our petitions for help and strength must be unwearied. Unless this is so, we shall never be successful in breaking down pride and overcoming the power of temptation to sinful indulgences which keep us from the Saviour. The light of truth, sanctifying the life, will discover to the receiver the sinful passions of his heart which are striving for the mastery, and which make it necessary for him to stretch every nerve and exert all his powers to resist Satan that he may conquer through the merits of Christ.”—Messages to Young People, p. 248. [Emphasis supplied.]