A good man is willing to know the worst of himself, and particularly under affliction, desires to be told wherefore God contends with him and what God designs in correcting him.
Matthew HenryRead
None are sent empty away from Christ but those who come to him full of themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
To receive spiritual fulfillment from Christ, one must let go of their own ego and self-importance.
This quote suggests that individuals who approach Christ with a sense of entitlement or excessive self-satisfaction will not find the spiritual nourishment they seek. It emphasizes the importance of humility and the willingness to empty oneself of pride and self-centeredness in order to truly receive and experience the grace and teachings of Christ.
Themes
ChristHumilityEgoSpiritualitySelflessness
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about humility and faith, one might reference this quote to illustrate the importance of letting go of one's ego.
More from Matthew Henry
All quotes βThere is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them.
Matthew HenryRead
To wait on God is to live a life of desire toward Him, delight in Him, dependence on Him, and devotedness to Him.
Matthew HenryRead
Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints.
Matthew HenryRead
What God requires of us he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love, creates them by the power of his grace going along with his word, that he may have all the praise.
Matthew HenryRead
No attribute of God is more dreadful to sinners than His holiness.
Matthew HenryRead
Similar quotes
Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.
Seneca The YoungerRead
I now bid farewell to the country of my birth - of my passions - of my death; a country whose misfortunes have invoked my sympathies - whose factions I sought to quell - whose intelligence I prompted to a lofty aim - whose freedom has been my fatal dream.
Thomas Francis MeagherRead
The vast numbers of people who suffer some kind of mental illness under capitalism can either think, 'there is some failing with me, if only I could fit into this system better, if only I were working harder, if only I could enjoy these empty pleasures more, then things would be OK' or 'the problem is with the system that is making me ill.'
Mark FisherRead
And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him.
Edith SteinRead
Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
H. L. MenckenRead
We are here among you as seekers of refuge from our present-your future-a time of worldwide famine, exhausted fuel supplies, terminal poverty-the end of the capitalistic experiment. Once we came to understand the simpl...truth that earth's resources were limited, in fact soon to run out, the whole capitalistic illusion fell to pieces. Those of us who spoke this truth were denounced as heretics, as enemies of the prevailing economic faith. Like religious Dissenters of an earlier day.
Thomas PynchonRead