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If self-denial meant slowly giving up everything you enjoy, who would want it? If it meant slowly growing vibrant, who wouldn’t?
“[T]o see things as He saw them, to feel things as He felt them, to be hearted, souled, minded, as He was – [t]his it is to deny self. . . .” George Macdonald
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. . . .” Luke 9:23
When you start to think you’re not worth the trouble, imagine being pursued and carried and rejoiced in.
“So He told them this parable: ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one, doesn’t . . . go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.’” Luke 15:4-5
“My God, what is a heart? That Thou should’st it so eye and woo, pouring upon it all Thy art, as if that Thou had nothing else to do?” George Herbert
I-can’t-bear-it feels scary and hopeless and shameful until you begin to see that God can (and will).
“Neither must we be discouraged . . . that we cannot do or bear any special thing. . . . [W]hile of ourselves it is impossible, . . . through Him we can do whatever He may require of us.” Jean-Nicolas Grou
“I can do all things in and through Him who infuses me with His strength.” Philippians 4:13
If someone with boundless patience and creativity were committed to changing you little by little for good, you wouldn’t have to be discouraged about how feeble and filthy you are right now.
“If we let him – for we can prevent him if we choose – he will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a . . . dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine. . . .” C. S. Lewis
“[W]e shall be like Him. . . .” 1 John 3:2
If God were offering you everything you’re thirsty for, it would be a shame to keep looking elsewhere.
“Tell the people this: . . . the Lord gives you shalom.” Numbers 6:23, 26
shalom: completeness; peace; safety; contentment; friendship; soundness
One true glimpse of God’s great heart would melt all our doubts and worries and what-ifs like the fog that they are.
“All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.” Thomas Acquinas, after an encounter with God
““And His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.” Revelations 1:16-17 (John the apostle, encountering the risen Christ)
