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Phrase - Stubbornness ( 263 )

Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

Stubbornness

Related phrase: stubbornness of Pharoh ( )

There is no education to be gained higher than that given to the early disciples, and which is revealed to us through the word of God. To gain the higher education means to follow this word implicitly; it means to walk in the footsteps of Christ, to practice His virtues. It means to give up selfishness and to devote the life to the service of God. Higher education calls for something greater, something more divine, than the knowledge to be obtained merely from books. It means a personal, experimental knowledge of Christ; it means emancipation from ideas, from habits and practices, that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness, and which are opposed to loyalty to God. It means to overcome stubbornness, pride, selfishness, worldly ambition, and unbelief. It is the message of deliverance from sin. {CT 11.2} {1MCP 90.2}

The message of deliverance is granted to all. We are to wear Christ's yoke and bear His burden. What is redemption? It is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven, and it requires something higher, something more divine than the mere knowledge of books. This training means a knowledge of Christ; it means emancipation from ideas, from habits and practices that have been gained in the school of the Prince of Darkness. The soul must be delivered from habits and practices which are opposed to loyalty to God. In this life we are to learn submission to the Divine will, or we shall not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. True religion enables a man to overcome stubbornness, pride, selfishness, worldly ambition, questioning, and unbelief. There is grace and strength in Christ to enable us to rise above the alluring, infatuating temptations of Satan and lead us to the Cross of Calvary, that we may become active, devoted, loyal workers for the cause of truth. {AUCR, July 12, 1899 par. 22}

God had declared concerning Pharaoh, "I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." Exodus 4:21. There was no exercise of supernatural power to harden the heart of the king. God gave to Pharaoh the most striking evidence of divine power, but the monarch stubbornly refused to heed the light. Every display of infinite power rejected by him, rendered him the more determined in his rebellion. The seeds of rebellion that he sowed when he rejected the first miracle, produced their harvest. As he continued to venture on in his own course, going from one degree of stubbornness to another, his heart became more and more hardened, until he was called to look upon the cold, dead faces of the first-born. Patriarchs and Prophets, page 268.1

Pharaoh desired to justify his stubbornness in resisting the divine command, and hence he was seeking some pretext for disregarding the miracles that God had wrought through Moses. Satan gave him just what he wanted. By the work that he wrought through the magicians he made it appear to the Egyptians that Moses and Aaron were only magicians and sorcerers, and that the message they brought could not claim respect as coming from a superior being. Thus Satan's counterfeit accomplished its purpose of emboldening the Egyptians in their rebellion and causing Pharaoh to harden his heart against conviction. Satan hoped also to shake the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, that his instruments might prevail. He was unwilling that the children of Israel should be released from bondage to serve the living God. {PP 264.3}

When parents show a rough, severe, masterly spirit, a spirit of obstinacy and stubbornness is aroused in the children. Thus the parents fail to exert over their children the softening influence that they might. {CG 280.1}

If you had laid their wrong course of action before them, they would have braced themselves in stubbornness and defiance; but to be treated in tenderness and consideration, they feel more deeply their own course of action and contrast it with yours. Then you have the staff in your own hands. You occupy vantage ground, and when you show a solicitude for their souls, they know that you are no hypocrite, but that you mean every word you say. {ChL 7.3}

Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives. Great Controversy, page 592.1 {LDE 146.5}

Everyday we are sowing some kind of seed. If we sow the seeds of unbelief, we shall reap unbelief; if we sow pride, we shall reap pride; if we sow stubbornness, we shall reap stubbornness, "for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." . . . {LHU 266.5}

The Lord never turned away a soul that came to Him in sincerity and humility. Why did he turn Saul away unanswered? The king had by his own act forfeited the benefits of all the methods of inquiring of God. He had rejected the counsel of Samuel the prophet; he had exiled David, the chosen of God; he had slain the priests of the Lord. . . . He had sinned away the Spirit of grace, and could he be answered by dreams and revelations from the Lord? Saul did not turn to God with humility and repentance. It was not pardon for sin and reconciliation with God, that he sought, but deliverance from his foes. By his own stubbornness and rebellion he had cut himself off from God. There could be no return but by the way of penitence and contrition; but the proud monarch, in his anguish and despair, determined to seek help from another source. . . . It was told the king that a woman who had a familiar spirit was living in concealment at Endor. . . . Disguising himself, Saul went forth by night with but two attendants, to seek the retreat of the sorceress. . . . {CC 171.2}

stubbornness of Pharaoh

I am instructed that those who follow on in a wrong course, regardless of the lessons taught by the burning of the Sanitarium and the Review and Herald office, are revealing the stubbornness of Pharaoh. They are refusing to be admonished by the judgments of Heaven, and are pressing on without realizing that these things call them to search their hearts closely and humble themselves before God. Unless they repent, the Lord will surely repeat His judgments, as He repeated them to the king of Egypt. God bears long with the perversity of men. He sends them decided reproofs and clear light, but if they will not receive the warnings of God, if they persist in following their own will, their own impulses, the Lord will send His judgments and will not pardon their persistent determination to be like the people of the world.... { PM 174.3}

Had Pharaoh accepted the evidence of God's power given in the first plague, he would have been spared all the judgments that followed. But his determined stubbornness called for still greater manifestations of the power of God, and plague followed plague, until at last he was called to look upon the dead face of his own first born, and those of his kindred; while the children of Israel, whom he had regarded as slaves, were unharmed by the plagues, untouched by the destroying angel. God made it evident upon whom rested His favor, who were His people. {CC 89.4}

Persists in stubbornness

tFrom anyone who persists in stubbornness and self-will, God will remove His Spirit, and another will wear the crown that was for him. God accepts only those who will learn of Christ, those who study His word, learning lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart, lessons of obedience, willingness to do his work in God's way, not their finite way . . . . {ChL 11.3}

From any one who persists in stubbornness and self-will, God will remove His spirit, and another will wear the crown that was for him. God accepts only those who will learn of Christ, those who study His Word, learning lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart, lessons of obedience, willingness to do his work in God's way, not their finite way. The work that is wrought in God will bear the credentials of heaven, and will show marked results. Personal views should be kept subordinate in the work of God; you must in all things put Christ foremost. To present the truth as it is in Jesus, is a work as enduring as eternity. The work coming forth as a perfect whole from the hands of various workmen, each acting his part, will bring the commendation of the Captain of our salvation. You have a work to do, and it is not best to keep ever before the mind the difficulties and the impossibilities. Say continually, "Through Jesus Christ who strengtheneth us, we can do this work." {TSA 24.1}

They think they are following sound reason, but they are following another leader. They have placed themselves under the control of a power which in their blindness they are wholly ignorant of. They have resisted the only Spirit that could lead them, enlighten them, save them. They are following in the path of guilt for which there can be no forgiveness, in this life or in the life to come. Not that any degree of guilt would exhaust the mercy of God, but because pride and persistent stubbornness leads them to do despite to the Spirit of God, to occupy a place where no manifestation of the Spirit can convince them of their error. They will not yield their stubborn wills. {5BC 1092.9}

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