Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

But if you let it humble you rather than embitter you, and turn to God instead of living for your own glory, then the death of your pride can lead to a resurrection. You can emerge, finally, fully human, with a tender heart instead of a hard heart.

keep from clutching them too tightly, of being enslaved to them. We will never do so by mouthing abstractions about how great God is. We have to know, to be assured, that God so loves, cherishes, and delights in us that we can rest our hearts in him for our significance and security and handle anything that happens in life.

If we are deeply moved by the sight of his love for us, it detaches our hearts from other would-be saviors. We stop trying to redeem ourselves through our pursuits and relationships, because we are already redeemed. We stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior.

There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality.

“I know God is both holy and gracious. I don’t know how he is going to be both—but I know he will.”

Despair, however, is inconsolable, because it comes from losing an ultimate thing. When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning or hope, there are no alternative sources to turn to. It breaks your spirit.

Mature Christians are not people who have completely hit the bedrock. I do not believe that is possible in this life. Rather, they are people who know how to keep drilling and are getting closer and closer.

“I was being advised to give up a common female idolatry and take on a common male idolatry,” she said. “But I didn’t want to have my self-worth dependent on career success any more than on men. I wanted to be free.”

As many have learned and later taught, you don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.