Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.
J. I. PackerRead
To mend our own relationship with God, regaining God's favor after having once lost it, is beyond the power of any one of us. And one must see and bow to this before one can share the biblical faith in God's grace.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that restoring our relationship with God is a task beyond our individual abilities, requiring humility and recognition of divine grace.
J. I. Packer illustrates the profound truth that the restoration of our relationship with God, particularly after straying from it, is not something we can achieve through our own efforts. It requires an understanding of our limitations and a recognition of grace, which is central to the biblical faith. This dependence on God's favor serves as a foundation for developing a true and meaningful faith.
Themes
GraceRelationshipFaithHumilityGod
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the importance of humility in faith, you could use this quote to highlight our dependence on God's grace.
More from J. I. Packer
All quotes →He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
J. I. PackerRead
We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal.
J. I. PackerRead
The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility and love. And, the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God
J. I. PackerRead
Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be ADOPTION THROUGH PROPITIATION, and I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that.
J. I. PackerRead
Only when it is seen that what decides each individual's destiny is whether or not God decides to save him from his sins, and that this is a decision that God need not make in any individual case, can one begin to grasp the biblical view of grace.
J. I. PackerRead
Similar quotes
Our identities really are a constant negotiation between the story we tell about ourselves and the narrative our societies like to recite.
Thomas Chatterton WilliamsRead
What are gold and jewels and precious utensils? Mere dross and dirt. The human face and the human heart, reciprocations of kindness and love, and all the nameless sympathies of our nature - these are the only objects worth being attached to.
William GodwinRead
Then a miracle occurred in the form of a plate of sandwiches. Geryon took three and buried his mouth in a delicious block of white bread filled with tomatoes and butter and salt. He thought about how delicious it was, how he liked slippery foods, how slipperiness can be of different kinds. I am a philosopher of sandwiches, he decided. Things good on the inside.
Anne CarsonRead
The work of woman is not to lessen the severity or the certainty of the penalty for the violation of the moral law, but to prevent this violation by the removal of the causes which lead to it.
Susan B. AnthonyRead
There are three kinds of violence: one, through our deeds; two, through our words; and three, through our thoughts. …The root of all violence is in the world of thoughts, and that is why training the mind is so important.
Eknath EaswaranRead
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
Joseph AddisonRead