Christ is our example. He was exposed to hardship. He endured suffering, He humbled Himself to humanity. Christ bore His burdens without impatience, without unbelief, without repining. He felt His trials none the less because He was the divine Son of God. You have not a trouble, perplexity, or difficulty which did not press with equal weight upon the Son of God; not a sorrow to which His heart was not equally exposed. His feelings were hurt as easily as yours. Again the life and character of Christ were faultless. His character was composed of moral excellencies, including everything pure, and true, and lovely, and of good report.
God has given us a perfect, faultless pattern. God designed to make of you an able, efficient workman. The mind He designed should be purified, elevated, ennobled. If the mind is allowed to be exercised with small things, it will be feeble as the result of unchanging laws. God wants His servants to enlarge the scope of their thoughts and plans of labor and bring their powers into vigorous contact with things that are grand, elevating, ennobling. This will give new springs to the intellectual faculties. His thoughts will take broad scope and he will gird up his energies for the task of a broader, deeper, grander work, swimming in deep and broad waters where there is no bottom or shore. . . .
God sees men's hearts and characters when they do not see their own state correctly. He sees that His work and cause will suffer if wrongs are not corrected that exist in themselves unobserved and therefore uncorrected. Christ calls us His servants, if we do what He commands us. There is to every man assigned his particular sphere, place, and work, and God asks no more and no less from the lowliest, as well as the greatest, than that they fulfill their calling. We are not our own property. We have become servants of Christ by grace. We are the purchase of the blood of the Son of God.--Letter 16, June 6, 1875, to Elder G. I. Butler, former president of the General Conference. TDG 166
While God condemns a mere round of ceremonies, without the spirit of worship, He looks with great pleasure upon those who love Him, bowing morning and evening to seek pardon for sins committed and to present their requests for needed blessings. Pr 22
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “ My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:5-6 (New King James Version)