Day 5, 6 & 7 - No bootstraps

God getting his point across, Part I:

My friend: So, how did it go this weekend?
Me: Well...
My friend: (laughing) That good, huh?
Me: (choking up)...I've just come to realize that I've got no bootstraps to pull myself up with here.
My (wise) friend: That's great, Tina! Keep humbling yourself and submitting this to God. He gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. Be humble, receive grace and He will finish what He began in you.


God getting his point across, Part II:

Parts of my morning reading...
WHY is it that we, in the very kingdom of grace, surrounded by angels, and preceded by saints, nevertheless, can do so little, and, instead of mounting with wings like eagles, grovel in the dust, and do but sin, and confess sin alternately? Is it that the power of God is not within us? ... What is it we lack? The power? No; the will. What we lack is the simple, earnest, sincere inclination and aim to use what God has given us, and what we have in us. -- John Henry Newman

Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phillippians 1:6)


God getting his point across, Part III:

My online gluttony study title today - "Happy are the Helpless".



Point taken.



"...And the [prideful glutton], standing afar off, would not so much as raise [her] eyes to heaven, but beat [her] breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13)