When God Graciously Blesses Us in Spite of Ourselves

J. I. Packer:

“It is certain that God blesses believers precisely and invariably by blessing to them something of his truth and that misbelief as such is in its own nature spiritually barren and destructive.

“Yet anyone who deals with souls will again and again be amazed at the gracious generosity with which God blesses to needy ones what looks to us like a very tiny needle of truth hidden amid whole haystacks of mental error. . . .

“Every Christian without exception experiences far more in the way of mercy and help than the quality of his notions warrants.”

—J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 21-22.