John Owen Quotes

All attempts, then, for mortification of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain.

If thou art fighting against thy sins, so is God. On thy side is God who made all, and Christ who died for all and the Spirit who alone gives wisdom, purity, and nobleness.

But after he was pleased to reveal himself to me I did presently, like Abraham, run to Hagar. And after that he did let me see the atheism of my own heart, for which I begged of the Lord that it might not remain in my heart.

O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

My life is such a contradiction. My soul yearns for holiness and then runs from the mortification necessary to attain it.

A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his warfare as well as by his peace.

Sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures.

It is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin; he is promised to do it, and all other means without him are empty and vain. How shall he, then, mortify sin that has not the Spirit? A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit makes us aware of our lack of holiness to stimulate us to deeper yearning and striving for holiness. But Satan will attempt to use the Holy Spirit’s work to discourage us.

Lord I disbelieve - help thou my unbelief.

As there is much beast and some devil in man, so is there some angel and some God in him. The beast and the devil may be conquered, but in this life never destroyed.

I think a lot of times God takes away your feelings, so you have to depend on faith. And faith is kind of like a tide. It rolls in and rolls out.

The way to Heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed; and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations.

Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory.

God works as long as His people live daringly; He ceases when they no longer need His aid.

My temptations have been my Masters of Divinity.

The mind is either at war with God or it is being renewed. There is no middle ground.

God is using my struggle. My struggle is the answer to the prayer.

The desperate addict is closer to the heart of grace than the devout moralist.

Lord deliver me from myself.

It is the very nature of grace to make a man strive to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most opposed to his bosom sin.

When we depend on anything smaller than God to provide us with the security, significance, meaning, and value that we long for, God will love us enough to take it away. Much of our anger and bitterness, therefore, is God prying open our hands and taking away something we've held onto more tightly than him.

And with the grace of Baptism and of Eucharistic Communion I can become an instrument of God's mercy, of that beautiful mercy of God.

The Holy Spirit truly transforms us. With our cooperation, he also wants to transform the world we live in.