THERE, BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD, GOES...(INSERT YOUR NAME)

Someone has said that the only person God sends away empty is the person full of himself. Charles Spurgeon once said, "Our imaginary goodness is more hard to conquer than our actual sin." I fall into the thinking that I can do things on my own when I can’t do anything apart from Christ. I trust my heart more than I should and discover pride and ugliness when I look inside. Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" What about you? Can you admit your individual arrogance before the Almighty? James 4:10: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

The English preacher and martyr John Bradford, when watching criminals being led out for execution, said: "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford."

(From a sermon by Brian Bill, "A Prayer God Will Answer" 6/28/2009)