Om door te bladeren terwijl u luistert, speelt u de audio af in een nieuw venster.

When we make changes in our life, we can do it out of fear or love. Say we want to change our diet... we can do it because we're afraid of what poor eating will do to us, or we can do it because we love how we're going to feel when we eat properly. Changing out of fear won't stick, but changing out of love will. The Lord teaches us that the same is true in our spiritual life: we have to WANT to change in order for it to stick.

(Referenties: Arcana Coelestia 9242; Divine Providence 129, 145, 146; Exodus 23:2-5)

9242. The confidence which in a pre-eminent sense is called faith seems to be a spiritual confidence even with the evil when their lives are in danger or when they are sick. But because in these circumstances their thought about the state of their life after death springs from fear of hell or from a selfish desire for heaven, they do not possess the confidence of faith. For that which springs from fear does not come from the heart; and that which springs from self-love comes from an evil heart. Therefore when such people's lives cease to be in danger or when they recover from sickness they resume their old life, the life which was devoid of the confidence that is faith. From all this it is evident that faith which is called confidence can exist only with those who are governed by charity towards the neighbour and by love to the Lord.