Quotable

Years ago you thought you could effect something in your life [for God]. You had energy...could organize efficiently...[had] intrepid courage, wise counsel, quick sympathy....But all this is over now, and you are compelled reluctantly to confess that the total residuum is disappointing. At the best, our Ishmaels are like wild asses’ colts. And you are coming to think that the remainder of your life will never rise above the dead levels of the past, will never achieve any large success for God, will never be fruitful in the conversion of men....

Wait! [Hear what God would say]: “What nature cannot do, Almightiness can. What human energy cannot effect, the Divine Spirit will. Till now thy might has hindered Me, has forced Me to wait...My Might has been thwarted, frustrated, neutralized by thy trust in thyself. But now that this [trust in self] has passed, there is room for My Omnipotence to work, and I, the Almighty God, swear by Myself...that if thou wilt fulfill the conditions of My covenant [trust and obey], I will make thee abundantly fruitful....”

—F. B. Meyer, Meet for The Master’s Use

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pt 5:6). If you could see what every stirring of pride does to your soul, you would beg of everything you meet to tear the viper from you, though with the loss of a hand or an eye. If you could see what a sweet, divine, transforming power there is in humility, how it expels the poison of your nature, and makes room for the Spirit of God to live in you, you would rather wish to be the footstool of all the world than lack the smallest degree of it.

—Andrew Murray, Humility