“ The error of justification by works is in trusting to the discipline of your own soul to save your own soul; but the opposite to trusting to your works is not do nothing, it is to do everything but not to put your trust in any of it. It is not the works that are wrong, it is the faith in your works, trusting in your works. But what a subtle danger this is. It seems to me that one of the chief dangers in Protestantism today, and especially in evangelical circles is that, in our fear of the error of justification by works, we have been saying that works do not matter at all. We argue that faith alone counts, and because I am a man of faith it does not matter what I do and my life can be thoroughly lacking in discipline. Out upon the suggestion! The opposite to a false trust in works is not indolence, lack of discipline and doing nothing, it is to be diligent and more diligent, to be zealous, and to add to your faith. But all the time you must realize that your action alone will never be enough, but that God is certainly a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So many people say that they would give anything to have a vestige of the knowledge that the saints had, ‘If only I had that joy, I would give the whole world for that - why cannot I have the experience of the warm heart?’ they say. The answer is that they have never really sought it. Look at the lives of those men and the time they gave to Scripture reading and prayer and various other forms of self-examination and spiritual exercises. They believed in the culture and the discipline of the spiritual life and it was because they did so that God rewarded them by giving them these gracious manifestations of Himself and these mighty experiences which warmed their hearts.
—
Dr. Martyn Lloyed-Jones @ Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (pg. 211)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETjmCU0U7WE
^ One of a few videos I used to watch daily ..
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