Rebecca

“One of the fundamental changes that takes place as we move from the faith of desperation to the faith of sufficiency is that we take our minds off ourselves and place them on God... We cannot truly see ourselves until we see God, but as long as our eyes are fixed on ourselves, we cannot see God. We must focus on God if we are to know the sufficiency of God.”
― Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

“We are often troubled about our faith because we are trying to have faith for a particular thing, like patience. But the faith God wants to give us is not for that thing, but for trusting him.”
― Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

“Human desire is infinite by its nature; it cannot be satisfied. You must take your stand against it because you cannot satisfy it. You can never get enough money, if you want money. You can never get enough power, if you want power. You can never get enough love, you can never get enough glory. It is impossible. So fundamental is this truth that every person who wishes to follow Christ must understand it. He spoke directly to the point: "Unless you lose your life, for my sake, you cannot follow me. Unless you take up the cross, you cannot follow me" (Matt. 16:24 par). The cross means the acceptance of limitation on desire. Without establishing this for yourself, there can only be frustration and worse, for you simply cannot satisfy a desire... Desire is infinite, partly because we were made by God, made for God, made to need God, and made to run on God. We can be satisfied only by the one who is infinite, eternal, and able to supply all our needs; we are only at home in God.”
― Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

“People who have grown up in an environment of love, even if it is only human love without a consciousness of God, will always have a tremendous resource that can never be taken away from them. If they have been loved rightly by their family, they have a treasure. Unfortunately, many people who are not loved rightly in their families enter marriage, thinking, Now, at last, I am really going to be loved, but they soon find out that both they and their spouse are hampered in loving each other. All these things direct us to the truth that perfect love is only found in God. Love is a gift from God, who is love. We can seek a gift and we can receive a gift, but we do not perform for a gift. So, when we read passages of scripture like those above (Matt. 18:3), we must remember that the call to us is not to -do- as much as it is to -receive-.”
― Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23