The True Secrets of My Safety

How much self-ignorance there may be in the heart of a true believer.

Let it be a settled principle in my faith, 

• that there is an amount of weakness in my heart, of which I have no adequate conception,
• and that I never know how far I might fall if I was to be tempted.

I imagine sometimes, like Peter, that there are some things I could not possibly do.

• I look pitifully upon others who fall, and please myself in the thought that at any rate I would not have done so.
• I know nothing at all.

The seeds of every sin are latent in my heart, 

• even when renewed, and they only need occasion, 
• or carelessness and the withdrawal of God's grace for a season, to put forth an abundant crop.
• Like Peter, I may think I can do wonders for Christ, 
• and like Peter, I may learn by bitter experience that I have no power and might at all.

As a servant of Christ, I will do wisely to remember these things.

• "Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall>" (1 Corinthians 10:12)
• A humble sense of my own innate weakness, a constant dependence on the Strong for strength, a daily prayer to be held up, because I cannot hold up myself -
• these are the true secrets of safety.

The great Apostle of the Gentiles said, "When I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Adapted Excerpt From The Gospel of John by J.C. Ryle