Ruth Chou Simons, writing in When Strivings Cease — a book that gracefully rebukes the dangerous “gospel of self-improvement,” which is so prevalent these days in some circles, and also threatens our neurotic spiritual lives.
“We are living the now and not yet.
And in this in between, we can mistake not yet for not enough if we’re not grounded in what the Bible actually says about God’s favor and how we receive it.
We’re not yet sinless, but his forgiveness is enough to make us clean.
We’re not yet with him face-to-face, but his presence is enough to sustain us.
We’re not yet fully transformed, but his glory is enough to declare us worthy.
Instead of deeply rooting ourselves within the substance of God’s grace, we keep trying to fit grace into the framework of our own soil for success — a framework that feeds on our innate pressure to perform and seeks to sustain a standard that disappoints no one.”
