Luther on Prayer

 “Father, do not call us into judgment, for in Your presence no one is righteous. Please do not condemn us for being ungrateful for all of Your unspeakable goodness—both spiritual and physical—and for our daily blunders and sins, which are more than we know or mark (Psalm 19:12).

Furthermore, do not consider how good or bad we have been, but look upon us with Your infinite compassion, bestowed upon us by Christ, Your beloved Son. Forgive also all our enemies and all those who have harmed us or done us an injustice, even as we forgive them from the heart. For they do themselves irreparable harm when they vent their anger against us. We gain nothing by their ruin. Rather, we would rather see them blessed with us. Amen.”

— Martin Luther on the fifth petition for of the Lord’s Prayer

Our Own Want

 When we have a due apprehension of the eminent actings of any grace in Christ Jesus, and withal a deep and abiding sense of our own want of the same grace, it is a season of especial application unto him by prayer for the increase of it.

John Owen

Emotional Highs

 The Christian life is not a string of emotional highs, but obedience and faith amid valleys, disappointments, and the mundane. "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Rev 3:10

-Ryan Denton

John Owen on Atheism

 “If I say to a man that the sun is risen and shines on the earth,

“if he questions or denies it, and asks me to prove it, it is sufficient to say, ‘It proves itself by its own light.’ “If he then says that this is no proof to him because he cannot see the light of the sun, then it is a satisfactory answer to say that he is blind. “If he is not blind, it is useless to argue with him because he is contradicting the witness of his own eyes and leaves himself with no satisfactory rule by which he could ever be convinced about anything. “So if I tell a man that the ‘heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork,’ or that the ‘invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,’ and he asks me how I can prove this, “it is a sufficient answer to say that these things in and by themselves prove the existence of the infinitely wise and powerful Creator, and that he ought to be able to reason that out for himself. “If he says that it does not appear to him that the universe was ever created but that it only came into being by chance, “then it is sufficient to say that he is delirious and does not have the use of his reason, or that he is arguing in express contradiction to his own reason, as the heathen philosophers admitted. “And if I declare to anyone that the Scripture is the word of God, a divine revelation, and that it proves and manifests itself to be so, and he replies that by the use of his sense and reason it does not appear to him to be God’s word, “then it would be a sufficient reply to secure the authority of Scripture…to say, ‘All men have not faith,’ in the light of which alone we can see the marks of its divine origin impressed on it.” — John Owen

1 John 5:14

1 John 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  

JOHN GILL: COMMENTARY:

but the revealed will of God is here intended, 

by which it appears that all grace is laid up in Christ, 

and all spiritual blessings are with him, 

and that the covenant of grace is ordered in all things, 

and full of the sure mercies of David, 

and of exceeding great and precious promises; 

all which are treasured up for the benefit and use of the people of God; 

and if, therefore, they ask for any grace, or supply of grace, 

for any spiritual blessing or mercy laid up in Christ, 

in the covenant, or in any of the promises, 

they ask that for matter which is according to the will of God, 

and which they may be assured they shall have, sooner or later: 

and to ask in a manner agreeably to his will, 

is to come in the name of Christ, 

and make mention of his righteousness, 

and ask for his sake; 

to put up all petitions in faith, 

with fervency, in sincerity, and uprightness; 

with reverence, humility, and submission to the divine will, and with importunity; 

and such askers God hears, 

even so as to answer, 

and grant their requests in his own time, 

though not always in theirs; 

in some cases sooner, in others later, 

according to his infinite wisdom, 

and in his own way, 

which is always the best, though not in theirs, 

as in the case of the Apostle Paul, 2Co_12:7. 

The Alexandrian copy and the Ethiopic version read, 

"if we ask anything according to", or in his name: that is, of Christ, 

and which agrees with John 14:13.

John 14:13-14  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   (14)  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Sanctification is a Promise, Not a Threat.

 Sanctification is a promise, not a threat.

—Brad Kafer

We have sinned and can sin the Same Way

 “When we see anyone sin, we should first weep over ourselves in their calamity, because we have either fallen like them or we can fall." -Gregory the Great

+in the adulterer, I see my lust +in the murderer, I see my hate +in the thief, I see my coveting We either are sinning, have sinned, or can sin the same way. Christ have mercy. And he does, for he is mercy incarnate.

Affect Our Hearts

 When by faith we have attained a view of the glory of Christ, in our contemplations on his person, we should not pass it over as a notion of truth which we assent unto, - namely, that he is thus glorious in himself, - but endeavour to affect our hearts with it.

John Owen

I need not torment myself

 I need not torment myself with the fear that my faith may fail; as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end. Faith, both in its origin and continuance, is a gift of grace.

J.I. Packer

 Taken Entirely from Monergism Blog:  Article entitled 

Resting in the Righteousness of Christ

To be united to Christ by grace though faith is to be counted as having lived His life, obeyed His law, suffered His punishment, died His death, and risen in His resurrection. The believer is not merely inspired by Christ; he is represented by Him. Christ’s perfect obedience was rendered on our behalf; He fulfilled every command of God’s law in our place (Romans 5:19; Galatians 4:4-5). His death was not merely an act of martyrdom. It was the full exhaustion of the law’s curse for our sin (Galatians 3:13). And His resurrection from the dead is the public declaration from God that the believer is now justified, fully accepted and acquitted in His sight (Romans 4:25; 1 Timothy 3:16).

This means justification is not a process, nor is it contingent upon our progress. It is a once-for-all verdict, grounded in the finished work of Christ, granted before we perform any act of obedience or experience any inward renewal (Titus 3:5-7). Our status before God does not rise and fall with our spiritual condition. It is as unchanging as the righteousness of Jesus Himself (Hebrews 13:8; 1 Corinthians 1:30). The gospel, then, assures trembling sinners that the moment they are in Christ, they are as justified as they ever will be (Romans 8:1; Colossians 2:10).

Such a gospel dismantles every attempt to mingle Christ’s righteousness with our own works. Even the slightest reliance on our obedience (whether in gaining or maintaining favor with God) undermines the very grace of the gospel (Galatians 2:21). It dishonors Christ by implying that His obedience was insufficient (Hebrews 10:14). Worse still, it leaves the conscience without peace, for if our standing with God is even partially based on our performance, we will never rest, never know security, and never truly be free from guilt (Romans 5:1; Hebrews 9:14).

But faith ... true, saving faith ... looks away from self entirely. It does not contribute; it receives. It rests wholly on the righteousness of Another (Philippians 3:9). This righteousness is not infused, earned, or grown into. It is imputed, credited by God Himself (Romans 4:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). It is alien to us, but ours by grace. In trusting Christ alone, the believer finds unshakable peace, because his salvation rests not on shifting sands, but on the finished and faultless work of the Son of God (Isaiah 32:17; John 19:30).

Rest, instead of Killing Ourselves with Care.

 When we wonder what God is doing with us, and are ready to kill ourselves with care; let us rest in God's wisdom. He knows best what he has to do.

Thomas Watson

Shall a silly passenger

On Distrusting God's Wisdom in Providence: 

"Shall a silly passenger, that understands not the use of a compass, be angry that the skillful pilot will not steer the vessel according to his pleasure? 

Stephen Charnock

Every day we fail

 Every day we fail. Every day Jesus remains spotless, and he is so for us, in our place.

Michael Reeves

Find Time to Pray

 “Why cannot men find time for prayer?

The only answer is because they do not love it.” — Charles Spurgeon

Crowning Comfort

 This is the crowning comfort to a sensible and understanding soul, that he stands righteous before a judgment seat in that full, exact, perfect, complete, matchless, spotless, and most acceptable righteousness of Christ which is imputed to him.

Puritan Thomas Brooks

The Works of Thomas Brooks, 3:485

Faithfully Performs

 "Whatever God mercifully promises, he also faithfully performs" - John Calvin, Institutes, III.xiii.4

Higher Level

 He who desires to be in an assured state, to have continual fellowship with God, to attain to a higher level of illumination & experience, and to fear God steadfastly, let him strictly observe his devotional time and let him not be neglectful in this.

—Wilhelmus à Brakel, 3:465

Hoornbeck no.1

 You can be assured that, since such feelings about sin (despair, regret, hatred) do not occur in an unconverted person, you, brought to this place through God's Spirit, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 converted & therefore share in the saving grace of God.

—Johannes Hoornbeeck, Spiritual Desertion, 81

Beloved by God

 Saving faith is a persuasion that we shall have life and salvation by Christ, or a receiving and resting on Him for salvation, included in it a knowledge of ourselves being beloved by God; the former cannot be without the latter.

--Thomas Boston

Morning Prayer Wilberforce

 O Lord, help me. I will try to assign at least an hour in the morning, and when circumstances will permit, the same in the evening, for Scripture reading, private devotion, and meditation.

--William Wilberforce