Amen, Brother Beacon and Sister Dorine!
It's worth it. You are worth it. Christ valued the souls of human beings over the prospect of His own existence. He was willing to be identified with sinners and face the consequences of transgression so we could experience in true conversion all of the fruits of the Spirit in His righteousness! Let us more fully comprehend the cost paid for our salvation in what Christ went through, and we will correspondingly value souls the way Christ did!
"The worlds unfallen and the heavenly angels had watched with intense interest as the conflict drew to its close. Satan and his confederacy of evil, the legions of apostasy, watched intently this great crisis in the work of redemption. The powers of good and evil waited to see what answer would come to Christ's thrice-repeated prayer. Angels had longed to bring relief to the divine sufferer, but this might not be. No way of escape was found for the Son of God. In this awful crisis, when everything was at stake, when the mysterious cup trembled in the hand of the sufferer, the heavens opened, a light shone forth amid the stormy darkness of the crisis hour, and the mighty angel who stands in God's presence, occupying the position from which Satan fell, came to the side of Christ. The angel came not to take the cup from Christ's hand, but to strengthen Him to drink it, with the assurance of the Father's love. He came to give power to the divine-human suppliant. He pointed Him to the open heavens, telling Him of the souls that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He assured Him that His Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that His death would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan, and that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High. He told Him that He would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied, for He would see a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved." {The Desire of Ages, page 693, paragraph 3}
What is your "Gethsemane"? What is your "Calvary"? In comparison to what Christ endured for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and how He died for us on Calvary, we are never called to make a real sacrifice. All that we face is given us by grace, preparing us for greater trial and finally for the eternal bliss of heaven. Even the time of Jacob's trouble cannot fully compare to what Christ endured for us, for He faced the sufferings of death for every human being. We are called to suffer trial and endure uncomplainingly so that our lives may be purified from all the dross of earthliness and selfishness. Amid all your pain and suffering in life, be cheered by the reality that Christ will never leave you, but go the step that He took--surrender your will to God so that Christ will live IN YOU by the Holy Spirit. If we choose to sin, Christ cannot remain in the heart, for He will not force us to have Him in control of our lives. But as in choosing sin it is inevitable that the soul must at some point realize that true affectionate obedience and all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing is no longer the experience of the character. At such a point, may such an experience of nakedness of soul lead to the realization of the need to heed the voice of the Jesus knocking on the door of the heart for entrance to convert the soul anew, or for the first time if it has never been experienced before! May we learn our continual need of Jesus to do any good thing and always walk with Him in constant union and communion of the soul! Then the sufferings of Christ will propel us forward to cheerfully experience all that God in His infinite love allows to befall us in preparation for Christ's SOON RETURN!! Will you surrender the whole heart to Him in light of how much He suffered for you and paid for your soul? Such a love constrains you to be "ALL IN" for Him!!
