Revelation 3:16-17

Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth, only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it into practice! Actually, the average church simply does not dare to check its practices against biblical precepts. It tolerates things that are diametrically opposed to the will of God, and if the matter is pointed out to its leaders, they will defend its unscriptural practices with a casuistry equal to the verbal dodgings of the Roman moralists....

Take away the sense of need, and blessings are bestowed in vain. They are no longer blessings. Food is of no avail to a man whose appetite is satisfied. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; they shall be filled, but not in any sense that shall leave them unacquainted with need. They shall never hunger, as those who have not the means of satisfying their hunger; but only as those who have much goods laid up for everlasting days in Christ. The spring of our happiness is...

You say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”— and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. § The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them;...