August 7:  Delight and Goodwill.

The Best Life Has to Offer.
Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor, this also, I saw, was from the hand of God.--Ecclesiastes 2:24, NKJV

AT THE CREATION, labor was appointed as a blessing.  It meant development, power, happiness.  The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a change in the condition of labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development.  And it is a safeguard against temptation.  Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promises industry, purity, and firmness.  Thus it becomes a part of God's great plan for our recovery from the Fall....

...While God has created and constantly controls all things, He has endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His.  To us has been given a degree of control over the forces of nature.  As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty out of confusion.  And though all things are now marred with evil, yet in our complete work we feel a joy akin to His, when, looking on the fair earth, He pronounced it "very good."--Education, 214.

                                          Whatever you do, do it heartily,
                                            as to the Lord and not to men,
                                     knowing that from the Lord you will receive
                             the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
                                                                                              --Colossians 3:23, 24, NKJV
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August 6:  Delight and Goodwill.

To Do Justice.
It is a joy for the just to do justice, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.--Proverbs 21:15, NKJV

HE WHO IS FULLY CONTENT to receive his commission from above will be cheered by the promises of God, as he seeks to do justice and judgment.  To have unwavering trust in God, to be a doer of His word, is to pursue a safe course.  The counsel of God simplifies the perplexities of business and domestic duties.  The followers of Chirst who work with an eye to the glory of God will have heavenly wisdom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol 8, 141.

The words and law of God, written in the soul, and exhibited in a consecrated, holy life, have a powerful influence to convict the world.  Covetousness, which is idolatry, and envy, and love of the world, will be rooted from the hearts of those who are obedient to Christ, and it will be their pleasure to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 201.

               Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
                   let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
                           and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
                              looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
                           who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
                                            despising the shame, and has sat down
                                             at the right hand of the throne of God.
                              
                                                       --Hebrews 12:1, 2, NKJV

August 5:  Delight and Goodwill.

The Christian's Many Sources of Happiness.
Do you have faith?  Have it to yourself before God.  Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.--Romans 14:22, NKJV

THOSE WHO FIND true happiness must have the blessing of Heaven upon all that they possess and all that they do.--The Adventist Home, 67.

Let us never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is a wellspring of joy.  He does not delight in the misery of human beings, but loves to see them happy.

Christians have many sources of happiness at their command, and they may tell with unerring accuracy what pleasures are lawful and right.  They may enjoy such recreation as will not dissipate the mind or debase the soul, such as will not disappoint and leave a sad after-influence to destroy self-respect or bar the way to usefulness.  If they can take Jesus with them and maintain a prayerful spirit, they are perfectly safe.

Any amusement in which you can engage asking the blessing of God upon it in faith will not be dangerous.  But any amusement which disqualifies you for secret prayer, for devotion at the altar of prayer, or for taking part in the prayer meeting is not safe, but dangerous.--The Adventist Home, 513.

                                        O Lord, You are my God.
                                                I will exalt You,
                                           I will praise Your name,
                                For you have done wonderful things;
                           Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
                                                                                       --Isaiah 25:1, NKJV

August 4:  Delight and Goodwill.

Joyfully Ministering to Others.
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives.--Ecclesiastes 3:12, NKJV

GOD CALLS UPON MEN to minister gladly to their fellow men.--The Ministry of Healing, 103.

Every effort we make for Christ will be rewarded by Him, and every duty we perform in His name will minister to our own happiness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 19.

Life is too valuable, too full of solemn, sacred responsibilities, to be wasted in pleasing self....

Men and women have hardly begun to understand the true object of life.  They are attracted by glitter and show.  They are ambitious for worldly pre-eminence.  To this the true aims of life are sacrificed.  Life's best things--simplicity, honesty, truthfulness, purity, integrity--cannot be bought or sold.  They are as free to the ignorant as to the educated, to the humble laborer as to the honored statesman.  For everyone God has provided pleasure that may be enjoyed by rich and poor alike--the pleasure found in cultivating pureness of thought and unselfishness of action, the pleasure that comes from speaking sympathizing words and doing kindly deeds.  From those who perform such service the light of Christ shines to brighten lives darkened by many shadows.--The Ministry of Healing, 98.

                               I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light
                                 so that you can understand the confident hope
                                 he has given to those he called--his holy people
                                 who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
                                                                                      --Ephesians 1:18, NLT

August 3:  Delight and Goodwill

Finding Delight in God's Word.
"If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures."--Job 36:11, NKJV

THE CHRISTIAN HAS A SOURCE of strength and happiness to which the lovers of pleasure are strangers.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 616.

Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate.  It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries.  When he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and hateful.  He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he embraces Christ as the life and joy of his soul.  He renounces his former pleasures.  He has a new mind, new affections, new interest, new will; his sorrows, and desires, and love are all new.  The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which have heretofore been preferred before Christ, are now turned from, and Christ is the charm of his life, the crown of his rejoicing.  Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and he contemplates it as his future home, where he shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed him by His precious blood.

The works of holiness, which appeared wearisome, are now his delight.  The word of God, which was dull and uninteresting, is now chosen as his study, the man of his counsel.  It is as a letter written to him from God, bearing the inscription of the Eternal.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 294.

                              If your instructions hadn't sustained me with joy,
                                           I would have died in my misery.
                                  I will never forget your commandments,
                                          for by them you give me life.
                                                                            --Psalm 119:92, 93, NLT

August 2:  Delight and Goodwill.

The Road to Perdition Is Wide, Not Easy.
"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways, and live?"--Ezekiel 18:23, NKJV

SATAN WILL PRESENT the path of holiness as difficult while the paths of worldly pleasure are strewed with flowers.  In false and flattering colors will the tempter array the world with its pleasures before you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 502.

Yet do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way.  All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on.  God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves.  It is true that Satan's path is made to appear attractive, but it is all a deception; in the way of evil there are bitter remorse and cankering care.  We may think it pleasant to follow pride and worldly ambition, but the end is pain and sorrow.  Selfish plans may present flattering promises and hold out the hope of enjoyment, but we shall find that our happiness is poisoned and our life embittered by hopes that center in self.  In the downward road the gateway may be bright with flowers, but thorns are in the path.  The light of hope which shines from its entrance fades into the darkness of despair, and the soul who follows that path descends into the shadows of unending night.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 139,

                                            "Thus says the Lord of hosts:
                                             'If you will walk in My ways,
                                          And if you will keep My command,
                                          Then you shall also judge My house,
                                         And likewise have charge of My courts;
                                                I will give you places to walk
                                                Among these who stand here.' "
                                                                                --Zechariah 3:7, NKJV

August 1:  Delight and Goodwill.

God Finds Pleasure in Rectitude.
"I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there.  You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously."--1 Chronicles 29:17, NLT

CHRIST IS PLEASED with His followers when they show that, though human, they are partakers of the divine nature.--The Desire of Ages, 153.

Not by their wealth, their education, or their position does God estimate men.  He estimates them by their purity of motive and their beauty of character.--The Ministry of Healing, 477.

Moral perfection is required of all.  Never should we lower the standard of righteousness in order to accommodate inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong-doing.  We need to understand that imperfection of character is sin.  All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole, and everyone who receives Christ as a personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes.--Christ's Object Lessons, 330.

Be ambitious, for the Master's glory, to cultivate every grace of character.  In every phase of your character building you are to please God.  This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him though living in a degenerate age.  And there are Enochs in this our day.--Christ's Object Lessons, 332.

                   By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death,
                          "and was not found, because God had taken him";
               for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
                              
                                                      --Hebrews 11:5, NKJV

July 31:  The Joy of Service.

Guardian Angels.
He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.  In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.--Psalm 91:11, 12, NKJV

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them."  Psalm 34:7.  God commissions His angels to save His chosen ones from calamity, to guard them from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" and "the destruction that wasteth at noonday."  Psalm 91:6.  Again and again have angels talked with men as man speaketh with a friend, and led them to places of security.  Again and again have the encouraging words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful and, carrying their minds above the things of earth, caused them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches of victory, which overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne.--The Act of the Apostles, 153.

Oh, that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth!  When the earthborn children know it not, they have angels of light as their companions.  A silent witness guards every soul that lives, seeking to draw that soul to Christ.  As long as there is hope, until men resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, they are guarded by heavenly intelligences.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 366.

In all ages, angels have been near to Christ's faithful followers.  The vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against all who would overcome; but Christ would have us look to the things which are not seen, to the armies of heaven encamped about all who love God, to deliver them.  From what dangers, seen and unseen, we have been preserved through the interposition of the angels, we shall never know, until in the light of eternity we see the providences of God.  Then we shall know that the whole family of heaven was interested in the family here below, and that messengers from the throne of God attended our steps from day to day.--The Desire of Ages, 240.

July 30:  The Joy of Service.

Angels Minister to Our Needs.
Are they all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?--Hebrews 1:14, NKJV

TODAY, AS VERILY AS IN THE DAYS of the apostles, heavenly messengers are passing through the length and breadth of the land, seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the impenitent, to win the hearts of men to Christ.  We cannot see them personally; nevertheless they are with us, guiding, directing, protecting.

Heaven is brought near to earth by that mystic ladder, the base of which is firmly planted on the earth, while the topmost round reaches the throne of the Infinite.  Angels are constantly ascending and descending this ladder of shining brightness, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and bringing blessing and hope, courage and help, to the children of men.  These angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and the eternal.  We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things.  The spiritual ear alone can hear the harmony of heavenly voices....

We need to understand better than we do the mission of the angels.  It would be well to remember that every true child of God has the co-operation of heavenly beings.  Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God.  Cherubim and seraphim, and angels that excel in strength, stand at God's right hand, "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation."  Hebrews 1:14.--The Acts of the Apostles, 152-154.

July 29:  The Joy of Service.

United With the Angels.
Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure.--Psalm 103:21, NKJV

ANGELS OF GLORY that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, joy in ministering to His little ones.  Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battles with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging.  Weak and trembling souls who have many objectionable traits of character are their special charge.  That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character, is the work of the pure, sinless beings from the courts above.--The Ministry of Healing, 105.

Is there not something stimulating and inspiring in this thought, that the human agent stands as the visible instrument to confer the blessings of angelic agencies?  As we are thus laborers together with God, the work bears the inscription of the divine.  The knowledge and activity of the heavenly workers, united with the knowledge and power that are imparted to human agencies, bring relief to the oppressed and distressed.  Our acts of unselfish ministry make us partakers in the success that results from the relief offered.

With what joy heaven looks upon these blended influences!--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 457.