You really can't justify anything else but giving your whole attention to spiritual formation in Christ.

Why doesn't God just force us to do the things he knows to be right? It is because that would lose precisely that which he has intended in our creation: freely chosen character.

Suppose our failures occur, not in spite of what we are doing, but precisely because of it.

The revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit...it is a revolution of character which proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layer of their soul. External, social arrangements may be used to this end, but they are not the end, nor are they a fundamental part of the means

Everyone gets a spiritual formation. It's like education. Everyone gets an education; it's just a matter of which one you get.

It would be of course a low voltage spiritual life in which prayer was chiefly undertaken as a discipline, rather than as a way of co-labouring with God to accomplish good things and advancing his Kingdom purposes.

Understanding is the basis of care. What you would take care of you must first understand, whether it be a petunia or a nation.