After a typically honest passage about the struggle in our hearts with sin, Paul Tripp encourages us with a wonderful summary of God’s grace in action:
Does this mean I am without hope? How could it be, with all I know and all I’ve experienced as God’s child, that these struggles still exist? Sure, there are times when I get it right and my heart is filled with love and gratitude for God, but not always. In the face of the acknowledgement of my fickle heart, my hope still remains firm and secure. Why? Because my security has never been in the degree of my love for God but in the unshakable and eternal character of his love for me. And as I come to him in poverty of spirit, not only will he not turn me away; he will greet me with open arms and the lavish provision of his right-here, right-now grace. His transforming love remains faithful even when mine doesn’t. He will not abandon the promises of his grace, even when I don’t value them as I should. He will not quit being my Lord in those moments when I would rather be my own lord. He will not fold up his kingdom and go home when I would rather construct a kingdom of my own that does my bidding. Yes, he will chasten me with his hands of fatherly grace, but he will not throw me out of his family and abandon the work in me and for me that he has begun.
from Paul Tripp, Sex and Money, 105-6.
Amen to that!