The Secret of Spiritual Life: One Cannot Stand in the Heart Without Painful Seeking

Whether this happens quickly or slowly depends on God’s grace: one person may spend years, another tens of years, laboring until he succeeds in standing in the heart and receives what is sought, because, for all the labor and seeking, this arrangement is not produced by our efforts alone. The Lord gives it, but does not give it without seeking and effort. He sees earnest seeking, painful labor, and the longing of the thirsting heart—He has compassion and gives the hoped-for good. Why He does this—only He knows alone: but without this painful seeking, no one attains to that normal arrangement. This is the secret of spiritual life… One cannot be admitted to God’s treasury without first being proven in trustworthiness. (16, 22–23)