Now you see. We are all fugitives. We have always been fugitives from the void. Whatever comfort, whatever power we gain from outside of ourselves diminishes us -- because comfort and power, unless they are won from the void inside of us, are illusions that make us forget the emptyness that carries us. When we forget that, we believe we deserve comfort and power and so are capable of any evil. We deserve nothing but what we make of ourselves. We deserve nothing else. And when we understand that, then nothing is enough.
If our hearts are full of our own wretched 'I ams' we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying 'I am'. We say, 'Alas, I am such a poor week creature,' or 'I am so foolish,' or 'I am so good-for-nothing,' or 'I am so helpless' and we give these pitiful 'I ams' of ours as the reason of the wretchedness and discomfort of our religious lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank check of God's magnificent 'I am,' which authorizes us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.
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If our hearts are full of our own wretched 'I ams' we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying 'I am'. We say, 'Alas, I am such a poor week creature,' or 'I am so foolish,' or 'I am so good-for-nothing,' or 'I am so helpless' and we give these pitiful 'I ams' of ours as the reason of the wretchedness and discomfort of our religious lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank check of God's magnificent 'I am,' which authorizes us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.
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