God does everything through people who understand they're nothing. And God does nothing through those who think they're everything.

Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died, and in Christ we have been raised.

Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God's grace reaches farther.

Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace.

Death is the operative device that sets us free in Christ - when we die, we truly live.

Submitting self to God is the only real freedom-because the deepest slavery is self-dependence, self-reliance. When you live your life believing that everything (family, finances, relationships, career) depends primarily on you, you're enslaved to your strengths and weaknesses. You're trying to be your own savior. Freedom comes when we start trusting in God's abilities and wisdom instead of our own. Real life begins when we transfer our trust from our own efforts to the efforts of Christ.

If you feel compelled to respond every time you're criticized it reveals just how much you've built your identity on being right.