Roger Stone: Praying for a Pardon With 'Full Faith in Jesus' | RealClearPolitics
"Reverend Graham made it clear it was not his support that I needed. He said the answer to my plight was to invite Jesus Christ into my heart and my life because if I did so, he would protect me and never abandon me."
Expressing your will have the benefits of God's grace does not make it so.
[Jas 4:13-17 ESV] 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
One of the most common examples of arrogance is to believe by saying "I accept Christ as my savior", you become a child of God. God makes the choice, not the sinner.
This arrogance started with Lucifer:
[[Isa 14:12-15 KJV] 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
I see numerous examples in scripture of individuals exercising their will. All ended in God having His way.
"Reverend Graham made it clear it was not his support that I needed. He said the answer to my plight was to invite Jesus Christ into my heart and my life because if I did so, he would protect me and never abandon me."
Expressing your will have the benefits of God's grace does not make it so.
[Jas 4:13-17 ESV] 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
One of the most common examples of arrogance is to believe by saying "I accept Christ as my savior", you become a child of God. God makes the choice, not the sinner.
This arrogance started with Lucifer:
[[Isa 14:12-15 KJV] 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
I see numerous examples in scripture of individuals exercising their will. All ended in God having His way.