“He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it’” (Luke 9:23, 24).

Men start out on dangerous expeditions-some to conquer a country, and when they reach that land they burn the boats they came in, so they cannot go back if they desired to.

Here is this pleasure and that indulgence; can I give them up? They have been very dear to me, entwined around my very life. They show themselves in my countenance, embedded in my character, a part of myself. I have clung to them as I cling to life itself. But Christ was not in them, they do not savor of the life of Christ. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. Can I, for the sake of sharing that joy, endure that cross?

There is the joy of having an infinite power working in us. For that joy, which we can have now, are we willing to give up everything and become sharers of the sufferings of Christ? This is a joy that will last forever, so let us burn the boats and the bridges behind us!

Says one, “I’ve tried to give up these things before, and I’ve fallen again; now how do I know but what I shall fall again?” You are not making a new resolution this time, you are not turning over a new leaf and saying that you’re going to do better. You’re merely letting the old life go. Simply say, “I know there is power in God. And the same power which spoke the world into existence and which brought Christ forth from the tomb-into the hands of that power I yield myself.” This from a human standpoint is impossible; difficulties arise on every hand. But we go forth in faith that He who can cast down imaginations in our hearts and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, can bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. He can do that work. It was the same power which caused the walls of Jericho to fall down before the people of God.

Waggoner, General Conference Bulletin, 1891, No. 10