DON'T BE SCARED OF AUTHORITY

'Do not be scared by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority.'

CS Lewis, Mere Orthodoxy, p.62.

KNOW YOURSELF WELL TO GET TO KNOW OTHERS WELL

'...the necessary requisite for us to be able to approach others adequately is a healthy concept of personal identity. The development of intimacy in relationships will depend upon the security that  one has in oneself. The more unsure a person is, the more relational conflicts the person will have. The poorer the person's self-image, the greater the difficulty in becoming close to others. Deep down, people who have relational problems with others have not learned to relate well to themselves. They are in conflict with others because of the conflict with themselves.

The result of all of this will be problems in having an intimate relationship with God. They will find it difficult to trust in God because it is difficult for them to trust in themselves.' 

Pablo Martinez, Praying with the Grain, p.105.   

CHILD-LIKE FAITH

'...within the child-self that is part of us all, there is perhaps nothing more precious than the fathomless capacity to trust.' 

Frederick Buechner, 'All's Lost - All's Found' in A Room Called Remember, p.190. 

THE BEST LAID PLANS

'While we may have a simple plan for our life - to be happy, prosperous, successful and at peace - what God wants is for us to learn to trust him deeply and against the odds. Trouble comes for us when these two programmes are going in opposite directions, for God's is stronger and he will prevail.' 

Charlie Cleverly, Song of Songs, p.180. 

TRUST

'...one cannot know enough to trust. To trust is simply to give oneself; the giving is for future, for which there is no evidence. And once given, the self cannot be taken back, whatever the evidence.' 

Wendell Berry, Remembering, p.91. 

TRUST

'Our trust in God will be perfect when life and death, glory and shame, adversity and prosperity, will be the same to us.'

Martin Luther in Os Guiness, God in the Dark, p.209.

TRUST

'....there is a personal God. He is my Father since I have accepted Christ as my Savior. Then surely when I lack trust, I am denying what I say I believe. At the same time, I say there is a battle in the universe, and God is God. Then, if I lack trust, what I am really doing is denying in practice that he has a right, as my God, to use me where he wants in the spiritual battle that exists in the seen and the unseen world.'

Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality, p.11.