February 2023 – Semper Reformanda

XLVIII

Thus it remains true to the word of Augustine that the heart of man was created for God and that it finds no rest until it is at rest in his father’s heart. All people actually seek God, the same Church Father testified, but they do not seek Him in the right way, not in the right place. They seek Him below, and He is above. They seek Him on earth, and He is in heaven. They seek Him far away, and He is near. They seek him in money, in goods, in glory, in power, in lust: and he dwells on high, and in the holy place, and with him that is of a lowly and lowly spirit, Isa. 57:15. But still they seek Him, if they may seek Him and find Him, Acts 17:27. They seek him and at the same time they flee from him. They have no desire to know His ways, and yet they cannot miss Him. They feel attracted to God and at the same time repelled by Him.

Bavinck, H. (1909). Magnalia Dei, 15

XLVII

When I was preaching through Acts several years ago, and I encountered the Apostles’ bravery in so many passages, I repeatedly told my congregation that boldness was not the same as bravado, and that it was not a personality type for the loud and outgoing. Boldness, I said, is being clear in the face of fear.

DeYoung, K. (2023). An Open Statement of the Truth

XLVI

There are many people who water down what saving faith is by making it a mere decision with no change of what one desires and seeks. But the point of this text in the great faith chapter in the Bible — Hebrews 11 — is that living and dying by faith means having new desires and seeking new satisfactions.

John Piper, Saving Faith Isn’t Easily Satisfied