Self-Contrivances

"I have seemed to see a need of everything God gives me, and want nothing that He denies me. There is no dispensation, though afflictive, but, either in it or after it, the Comforter teaches me that I could not have done without it. Whether it be taken from me or given to me, sooner or later, God quiets me in Himself without it."

"I think the Lord deals kindly with me to make me believe for my mercies before I have them. The less reason has to work on, the more freely faith casts itself on the faithfulness of God. I find that while faith is steady, nothing can disquiet me; and when faith totters, nothing can establish me. If I tumble out amongst means and creatures, I am presently lost, and can come to no end; but if I receive help from above, to stay myself on God, and leave Him to work in His own way and time, I am at rest, and can sit down and sleep in a promise when a thousand rise up against me: therefore my way is not to cast beforehand, but to work with God by the day. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

"Self-contrivances are the effects of unbelief."