CHRISTIAN SELF-DENIAL
“’As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he’ll cut his own fingers’” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 9th AM).
“It is an ancient and true observation that there is a world of vices hidden in the soul of man, but Christian self-denial is the remedy of them all” John Owen (ref#313, p24).
“The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, May 25th).
“[A]lthough we have offended our King many times, yet our hearts are loyal to Him after all. ‘Oh precious Jesus, we would obey You and yield submission to every one of Your laws; our sins are not willful or beloved sins. Although we fall, we can truly say that we want to be holy as You are holy, our hearts are true toward Your statutes. Lord, help us to ‘run the way of thy commandments’ (Psalm 119:32)” Charles Spurgeon (ref#320, p26).
“[T]hough we can fall of ourselves, we cannot rise without his help. Indeed every sin, in its own nature, has a tendency toward a final apostasy; but there is a provision in the covenant of grace, and the Lord, in his own time, returns to convince, humble, pardon, comfort, and renew the soul. [W]e begin at length to learn that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing but sin. And thus we are gradually prepared to live more out of ourselves, and to derive all our sufficiency of every kind from Jesus, the fountain of grace. We learn to tread more warily, to trust less to our own strength, to have lower thoughts of ourselves, and higher thoughts of him” John Newton (ref#322, p119-120).
“Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me” (Ps 26:9-11 ESV).
Bonnie's Prayer Affair 