If you didn't earn your salvation how are you going to un-earn it?

What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

Prayer gives us relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption .

Christmas means Jesus came down and got involved in suffering. He hears your cries.

It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.

Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, saves completely by grace. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance--he can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power. If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.

If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself.