Passion & Purity

SUCH a good book. Here are some of my favourite parts:
"But the question to precede all others, which finally determines the
course of our lives, is What do I really want? Was it to love what
God commands, and to desire what He promises? Did I want what I
wanted, or did I want what He wanted, no matter what it might cost?
Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of
Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His
Lordship."
"'When the will of God crosses the will of man,' Addison Leitch said,
'somebody has to die.' Life requires countless 'little' deaths -
occasions when we are given the chance to say no to self and yes to
God...It is not that everything that has anything to do with ourselves
is in itself wicked and deserving of death. It did not mean that when
Jesus said, 'Not my will...' There could not have been even the
smallest part of His will that was wicked. It was a choice to lay
down everything - the good He had done and the good He might do if He
was permitted to live - for the love of God...There is a big however.
It is this: We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God
could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath
of life. We die in order to live."
"I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear
uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting
the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts."
"Tomorrow was not our business; it was His. Letting it rest with Him
was the discipline for the day, and it was enough."