The Essence Of Faith Is Being Satisfied

To Love God Does Not Mean To Meet His Needs, But Rather To Delight In Him And To Be Captivated By His Glorious Power And Grace, And To Value Him Above All Other Things On Earth. All The Rest Of The Commandments Are The Kinds Of Things That We Will Do From Our Hearts, If Our Hearts Are Truly Delighted With And Resting In The Glory Of God's Grace.

Life Is Not A Straight Line Leading From One Blessing To The Next And Then Finally To Heaven. Life Is A Winding And Troubled Road. Switchback After Switchback. And The Point Of Biblical Stories Like Joseph And Job And Esther And Ruth Is To Help Us Feel In Our Bones (not Just Know In Our Heads) That God Is For Us In All These Strange Turns. God Is Not Just Showing Up After The Trouble And Cleaning It Up. He Is Plotting The Course And Managing The Troubles With Far-reaching Purposes For Our Good And For The Glory Of Jesus Christ.

If You Must Choose Between Loving Someone And Acting So That They Feel Loved, Always Choose To Love Them.

So Saving Grace, Converting Grace, For Augustine, Is God's Giving Us A Sovereign Joy In God That Triumphs Over All Other Joys And Therefore Sways The Will. The Will Is Free To Move Toward Whatever It Delights In Most Fully, But It Is Not Within The Power Of Our Will To Determine What That Sovereign Joy Will Be.

We Weren't Meant To Be Somebody--we Were Meant To Know Somebody