Blessed Night, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For Yourselves And Everyone Else…All Around The World. And A Beautiful World It Is… Evident In All The Nature Around Us. Even In Our Human Experiences – Good Or Bad – We Individuals Can Radiate That Same Graceful Quality In Our Everyday Living… As We See In The Flight Of The Birds In The Sky, In The Abundant Sea Life In The Oceans; And The Trees And Plant Life – With Their Leaves And Blossoms Swaying In The Breeze… To The Rhythm Of God Almighty; When We Allow Our “Mighty I AM Presence” To Lead Us. Now Check It… No Matter The Pressure Or Intensity They Receive… That Nature – Being No Other Than The Nature That It Is – In Its Natural Element – Tends To Hold It Down… By The Grace Of The Living God… That Sustains Them. Amen… 🤗💜💜💜

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life… 🙏🏾💞

“Why God Does Not Immediately Cure Pride Itself; The Secret and Insidious Growth of Pride; Preventing and Subsequent Grace.”

“I would indeed so treat these topics, as to confess myself ignorant of God’s deeper counsel, why He does not at once heal the very principle of pride, which lies in wait for man’s heart even in deeds rightly done; and for the cure of which pious souls, with tears and strong crying, beseech Him that He would stretch forth His right hand and help their endeavours to overcome it, and somehow tread and crush it under foot.

Now, when a man has felt glad that he has even by some good work overcome pride, from the very joy, he lifts up his head and says: “Behold, I live; why do you triumph? Nay, I live because you triumph.” Premature, however, this forwardness of his to triumph over pride may perhaps be, as if it were now vanquished, whereas its last shadow is to be swallowed up, as I suppose, in that noontide which is promised in the scripture which says, “He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday”, Psalm 37:6, provided that be done which was written in the preceding verse: “Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass”, Psalm 37:5, not as some suppose, that they themselves bring it to pass.

Now, when he said, “And He shall bring it to pass”, he evidently had none other in mind but those who say, We ourselves bring it to pass; that is to say, we ourselves justify our own selves. In this matter, no doubt, we do ourselves too, work; but we are fellow workers with Him who does the work, because His mercy anticipates us. He anticipates us, however, that we may be healed; but then He will also follow us, that being healed we may grow healthy and strong. He anticipates us that we may be called; He will follow us that we may be glorified. He anticipates us that we may lead godly lives; He will follow us that we may always live with Him, because without Him, we can do nothing, (John 15:5).

Now the Scriptures refer to both these operations of grace. There is both this: “The God of my mercy shall anticipate me”, (Psalm 59:10); and again this: “Your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”, (Psalm 23:6). Let us therefore unveil to Him our life by confession, not praise it with a vindication. For if it is not His way, but our own, beyond doubt, it is not the right one. Let us therefore reveal this, by making our confession to Him; for however much we may endeavour to conceal it, it is not hidden from Him. It is a good thing to confess unto the Lord.

Pride Even in Such Things as are Done Aright Must Be Avoided; Free Will is Not Taken Away When Grace is Preached. So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that if there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. “He will”, as the Scripture has said, “turn aside our paths from His own way”, (Psalm 44:18), and will make that which is His own to be our way; because it is by Himself that the favour is bestowed on such as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which they are ignorant “who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”, (Romans 10:2), and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, “have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God”, Romans 10:3. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes”, (Romans 10:4); and He has said, “I am the way”, (John 14:6).

Yet God’s voice has alarmed those who have already begun to walk in this way, lest they should be lifted up, as if it were by their own energies that they were walking therein. For the same persons to whom the apostle, on account of this danger, says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure”, (Philippians 2:12), are likewise for the self-same reason admonished in the psalm: “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the righteous way, when His wrath shall be suddenly kindled upon you”, (Psalm 2:11-12). He does not say, “Lest at any time the Lord be angry and refuse to show you the righteous way”, or, “refuse to lead you into the way of righteousness”; but even after you are walking therein, he was able so to terrify as to say, “Lest you perish from the righteous way.”

Now, whence could this arise if not from pride, which (as I have so often said, and must repeat again and again), has to be guarded against even in things which are rightly done, that is, in the very way of righteousness, lest a man, by regarding as his own that which is really God’s, lose what is God’s, and be reduced merely to what is his own?

Let us then carry out the concluding injunction of this same psalm, “Blessed are all they that trust in Him”, (Psalm 2:12), so that He may Himself indeed effect and Himself show His own way in us, to whom it is said, “Show us Your mercy, O Lord” (Psalm 85:7); and Himself bestow on us the pathway of safety that we may walk therein, to whom the prayer is offered, “And grant us Your salvation”; and Himself lead us in the self-same way, to whom again it is said, “Guide me O Lord, in Your way, and in Your truth will I walk” (Psalm 86:11).

Himself too, conduct us to those promises whither His way leads, to whom it is said, “Even there shall Your hand lead me and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:10). Himself pasture therein those who sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, “He shall make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37).

Now we do not, when we make mention of these things, take away freedom of will, but we preach the grace of God; for to whom are those gracious gifts of use but to the man who uses, but humbly uses his own will, and makes no boast of the power and energy thereof, as if it alone were sufficient for perfecting him in righteousness.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, St. Augustine: A Treatise on Nature and Grace: Chapters 35, 36, and 37