Law: expect nothing from ourselves

Sunday, February 24, 2019
Meditation:
Give us aid against the enemy,
    for the help of man is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
    and he will trample down our enemies.
    —Psalm 108:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Each of these foregoing states has its time, its variety of workings, its trials, temptations, and purifications, which can only be known by experience in the passage through them. The one only and infallible way to go safely through all the difficulties, trials, temptations, dryness, or opposition, of our own evil tempers, is this: it is to expect nothing from ourselves, to trust to nothing in ourselves, but in everything to expect, and depend upon God for relief. Keep fast hold of this thread, and then let your way be what it will, darkness, temptation, or the rebellion of nature, you will be led through it all, to an union with God: for nothing hurts us in any state, but an expectation of something in it, and from it, which we should only expect from God. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 147 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 108:12-13; 146:3-5; Isa. 2:22; 57:12; 64:6; Luke 18:9-14; Gal. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    On my own, I can achieve nothing good, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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