If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine
To love Jesus is to know Him and to accept Him as He is, not as we wanted Him to be.
For surely there will be times when we will find it hard to understand everything about Him. We may not always agree with what He says. We may not always understand His ways.
But let such things never discourage us. Let it challenge us instead to know Him more!
Is this not love? To grow in our knowledge of the other from day to day? To let challenges draw us closer instead of drawing us apart? To discover more beautiful things once we overcome what seems to be difficult at the start?
Love Jesus, the real Jesus. Only by knowing Him fully can we Love Him without being afraid!
At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” – John 6:66-68, WEB
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"