I've been reading a convicting little book that John Bunyan wrote and published in 1676 titled [i]The Strait Gate
Here is a wise tidbit from that book that may be helpful to some here...
–Give me leave now in a word to give you a little advice.
1. Dost thou love thine own soul? then pray to Jesus Christ for an awakened heart, for a heart so awakened with all the things of another world, that thou mayest be allured to Jesus Christ. 2. When thou comest there, beg again for more awakenings about sin, hell, grace, and about the righteousness of Christ. 3. Cry also for a spirit of discerning, that thou mayest know that which is saving grace indeed. 4. Above all studies apply thyself to the study of those things that show thee the evil of sin, the shortness of man's life, and which is the way to be saved. 5. Keep company with the most godly among professors. 6. When thou hearest what the nature of true grace is, defer not to ask thine own heart if this grace be there. And here take heed–
(1.) That the preacher himself be sound, and of good life. (2.) That thou takest not seeming graces for real ones, nor seeming fruits for real fruits. (3.) Take heed that a sin in thy life goes not unrepented of; for that will make a flaw in thine evidence, a wound in thy conscience, and a breach in thy peace; and a hundred to one, if at last it doth not drive all the grace in thee into so dark a corner of thy heart, that thou shalt not be able, for a time, by all the torches that are burning in the gospel, to find it out to thine own comfort and consolation.
If you would like to read more the book can be found online [url=http://acacia.pair.com/Acacia.John.Bunyan/Sermons.Allegories/The.Strait.Gate/index.html.gz]HERE
In Christ,
Ron
