Unforced but With Power

Have you ever wondered how Jesus maintained the motivation to labor, heal, comfort, preach, and teach so many people day after day? We’re told that “when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36, NKJV). It was Jesus’ love and compassion toward humanity that drove His labor. In a similar way, God’s love in us should compel us to feel the burden of leading souls to Him and to His truth (2 Cor. 5:14).

Have you ever looked at the faces of strangers in a crowd and thought ahead to eternity, to wonder if they know Jesus? Have you ever felt what can only be the love of God in you toward a stranger in need? God’s love in us compels us to feel the burden of leading souls to Him. Jeremiah expressed this when he said, “ ‘His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not’ ” (Jer. 20:9, NKJV).

However, when we share God with others, we should never try to force someone to accept God or His Bible truth. Coercion goes against the very heart of God’s character. God didn’t force Adam and Eve to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16, 17). He didn’t force people into the ark to be saved from the Flood (Gen. 7:1). He didn’t force the Israelites to remain in their covenant with Him (Deut. 4:29–31). Instead, He met their needs (Matt. 4:23–25) and then invited them to follow Him. Jesus never forced anyone to follow Him or His truth, but He never gives up on us (Matt. 23:37).

As we witness, our approach should always mirror Jesus’ approach. Ellen G. White says, “It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan, and men actuated by his spirit, that seek to compel the conscience. . . . There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 487.

We must allow ourselves to be a conduit for God’s service. We live in a world that hates the truth, but that reality shouldn’t prevent us from sharing it in thoughtful, loving ways. Remember that it’s often our own personal testimony that will carry the most weight, particularly in the early stages of witnessing (Rev. 12:11).

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth before the vast multitude, showing themselves unhurt. The presence of their Saviour had guarded them from harm, and only their fetters had been burned. “And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.”
Forgotten was the great golden image, set up with such pomp. In the presence of the living God, men feared and trembled. “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” the humbled king was constrained to acknowledge, “who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.”
The experiences of that day led Nebuchadnezzar to issue a decree, “that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill.” “There is no other god,” he urged as the reason for the decree, “that can deliver after this sort.”
In these and like words the king of Babylon endeavored to spread abroad before all the peoples of earth his conviction that the power and authority of the God of the Hebrews was worthy of supreme adoration. And God was pleased with the effort of the king to show Him reverence, and to make the royal confession of allegiance as widespread as was the Babylonian realm.
It was right for the king to make public confession, and to seek to exalt the God of heaven above all other gods; but in endeavoring to force his subjects to make a similar confession of faith and to show similar reverence, Nebuchadnezzar was exceeding his right as a temporal sovereign. He had no more right, either civil or moral, to threaten men with death for not worshiping God, than he had to make the decree consigning to the flames all who refused to worship the golden image. God never compels the obedience of man. He leaves all free to choose whom they will serve.
By the deliverance of His faithful servants, the Lord declared that He takes His stand with the oppressed, and rebukes all earthly powers that rebel against the authority of Heaven. The three Hebrews declared to the whole nation of Babylon their faith in Him whom they worshiped. They relied on God. In the hour of their trial they remembered the promise, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Isaiah 43:2. And in a marvelous manner their faith in the living Word had been honored in the sight of all. The tidings of their wonderful deliverance were carried to many countries by the representatives of the different nations that had been invited by Nebuchadnezzar to the dedication. Through the faithfulness of His children, God was glorified in all the earth.—Prophets and Kings, p. 510.