((So none of this is my original thought...but Donald Miller's statements on obedience, grace, and love have been an amazing reality in my life lately; thus I'm especially enamored with his statements. Read them and then think about John 14:21...pretty cool...))
“…I am too prideful to accept the grace of God. It isn’t that I want to earn my own way to give something to God, it’s that I want to earn my own way so I won’t be charity…realizing I was too proud to receive God’s grace, I was humbled. Who am I to think myself above God’s charity? And why would I forsake the riches of God’s righteousness for the dung of my own ego” (Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz 85)?
“Rick told me he understood, cognitively as well as emotionally, that his role in his relationship with God was to humbly receive God’s unconditional love” (Miller 85).
“Rick says that I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God’s love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous and clean; accepting God’s love will” (Miller 86).
“We dream of Christ’s love for His bride reading like Romeo and Juliet; two equals enflamed in liberal love. I think it is more like Lucentio’s pursuit of Bianca in the Taming of the Shrew. That is, the groom endearing the belligerent bride with kindness, patience, and love. Our behavior will not be changed long with self-discipline; but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible. The laziest of men will swim the English Channel to win his woman. I think that what Rick said is worth repeating that by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with Him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey. In exchange for our humility and willingness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kingdom. And a beggar’s kingdom is better than a proud man’s delusion” (Miller 86).
"Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him."
John 14:21
