Decide to Rest
Deciding to rest means choosing calmness and the peace of Christ over the restlessness and agitation of the world.
Mary Wilder Tileston emphasizes the importance of seizing the present moment for salvation and blessings, urging listeners to embrace each day as a fresh beginning despite past sorrows and sins. She highlights how every temptation to anger or restlessness is an opportunity to choose the calmness and rest of Christ over worldly agitation. Tileston encourages immediate action towards goodness and self-improvement, warning against procrastination in striving against sin.
Text
This day is salvation come to this house.
LUKE 19:9
From this day will I bless you.
HAGGAI 2:19
EVERY day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day, and begin again.
SUSAN COOLIDGE
EVERY temptation to evil temper which can assail us to-day will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world. Nay, the very vicissitudes of the seasons, day and night, heat and cold, affecting us variably, and producing exhilaration or depression, are so contrived as to conduce towards the being which we become, and decide whether we shall be master of ourselves, or whether we shall be swept at the mercy of accident and circumstance, miserably susceptible of merely outward influences.
F. W. ROBERTSON
Why wilt thou defer thy good purpose from day to day? Arise, and begin in this very instant, and say, "Now is the time to be doing; now is the time to be striving; now is the fit time to amend myself." Unless thou dost earnestly force thyself, thou shalt never get the victory over sin.
THOMAS À KEMPIS
Sermon Outline
- Introduction
- Temptation and Rest
- Taking Action
- Arising and Beginning
- Forcing Ourselves to Victory
Key Quotes
“EVERY day is a fresh beginning;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“Unless thou dost earnestly force thyself, thou shalt never get the victory over sin.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“EVERY temptation to evil temper which can assail us to-day will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- We must be aware of the opportunities that come our way each day, and decide whether we will be master of ourselves or swept by circumstance.
- We must earnestly force ourselves to overcome sin, and not delay our good purpose from day to day.
- Every day is a chance to start anew, to take heart, and to begin again, despite past sorrow and sin.