I plainly felt that, had God given me such a retirement with the companion I desired, I should have forgotten the work for which I was born and have set up my rest in this world.
Interpretation
Wesley reflects on the tension between personal contentment and the responsibilities of one's purpose in life.
In this quote, John Wesley articulates a profound understanding of the human condition, acknowledging that a life of ease and comfort, while desirable, may distract one from fulfilling their true purpose. He suggests that if he were granted the blissful retirement he longs for, he might become complacent and forget the significant work he feels destined to accomplish, highlighting the importance of ambition and duty over personal satisfaction.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding one's purpose in life.
I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions.
I asked long ago,'What must I do to be saved?' The Scripture answered, 'Keep the commandments, believe, hope, love.' I was early warned against laying, as the Papists do, too much stress on outward works, or on a faith without works, which as it does not include, so it will never lead to true hope or charity.
Prayer is where the action is.
I saw that giving even all my life to God (supposing it possible to do this and go no further) would profit me nothing unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to Him.
In using all means, seek God alone. In and through every outward thing, look only to the power of His Spirit, and the merits of His Son. Beware you do not get stuck in the work itself; if you do, it is all lost labor. Nothing short of God can satisfy your soul. Therefore, fix on Him in all, through all, and above all...Remember also to use all means as means-as ordained, not for their own sake.
Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.
He threatens many that hath injured one.
It is all too common for caterpillars to become butterflies and then to maintain that in their youth they had been little butterflies. Maturation makes liars of us all.
It is still fashionable to believe that how you organize yourself religiously in this life may matter for eternity. Unless we can erode the prestige of that kind of thinking, we're not going to be able to undermine these divisions in our world.
The real test of any church or religion is the kind of men it makes.
I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.
If anyone tells you there is only one way, their way, get as far away from them as possible, both physically and philosophically.
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