Received Without Merit

If it is the question of your getting into His love, you cannot get in. But if it is the question of Christ's having brought you into it by washing you from your sins in His own blood, there can be no fear, for "perfect love casteth out fear," and "we love Him, because He first loved us." Would you have liked Christ to have left out of His Word all desire for the expression of your love?
God cannot receive anything from a ruined creature, because it comes with a taint of sin and selfishness, but as accepted ones in the Beloved, is it not an expression of His love to put it into our heart to say, "We love Him, because He first loved us"? All the ruin and sin of the first Adam became the very occasion for all the love of God to flow out. If we are able to say, "I am a believer and a pilgrim," I ought to be able to say, "I know what manner of love God has bestowed upon me." The real claim of God's love over them is never answered by the children of God, if they are not standing in it as the expression of it. What have Ito do with bringing water down from the rock? The water is there, and if it has come down to me, was there any virtue or power in self to bring it down? No! As a creature I am ruined, and if I should say to God, "What can I as a ruined creature do?" His answer is, "It is not the question of your doing, but of Mine. I gave My Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and you will find that he that honors that work has found the ground on which to stand in My presence with perfect acceptance.”
I am in a world where all are scrambling after what they can get for self. I might say that I have nothing, but poor and little as I am the Father gave His Son for me. I have the heart of that Son of His who is occupied with all that concerns me, and He even counts the beatings of this heart of mine down here. After all Christ's self-denial for me, is there to be none from me to Him? When Christ bought me with His own blood and He charged Himself with all my guilt, am Ito do or say anything that is not for the glory of that Christ?
You can only plead with God as you know Christ. He alone is the channel by which God can bless you and answer every desire of your heart. "God is love," but it is in and through Christ that He is this for us.
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God.”
1 John 4:7

Proverbs
Simon Patrick on the Proverbs
1683
Chapter 4:14-27
14. "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men." And if thou really intendest to be guided by me, remember the advice I gave thee in the beginning (Ch. 1:10) not so much as to enter upon their wicked course of life, or to keep them company, who regard not God and are injurious to men; or if thou hast been seduced into it, be not persuaded by their seeming prosperity and thriving condition to continue in it.
15. "Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." Avoid it therefore with a just abhorrence; come not near it, but get as far as thou canst from their society, and decline all occasions that might invite thee into it, as dangerous temptations.
16. "For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall." For as mischief is their business, so they pursue it with a restless diligence, there being those among them, for instance, that cannot be quiet, nor have any satisfaction till they have executed their villainous intentions, but perpetually disturb themselves, that they may ruin others.
17. "For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence." For they live by robbery and spoil, having no other meat and drink, but what is the fruit of rapine and violence, and not of their honest labors.
18. "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Which makes a wide difference between them and righteous men, whose pure and innocent life is full of honor as well as joy, which increases continually together with their virtue, proceeding (like the splendor of the sun, which nothing can extinguish, nor hinder in its course) till it come to the highest pitch of joy and glory
19. "The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble." Whereas those wicked people live most uncomfortably, as well as basely and vilely, going on blindly to their own destruction (of which they are in constant danger, and grows more and more upon them) and yet they know not, no more than men in thick darkness, what mischief it is that suddenly may befall them.
20. "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings." Therefore I do not without reason once more repeat my request unto thee (vv. 1,10) that thou wilt give diligent heed to my advice, and seriously consider those exhortations, which proceed from a sincere affection to thy welfare.
21. "Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart." Read them over and over again, and keep them perpetually in mind; or rather preserve them studiously, and lay them up, as a most precious treasure, in the closest affections of thy heart.
22. "For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh." For they will make all those exceeding happy, both in body and soul, who become thoroughly acquainted with them, and, how various soever their temper and condition be, will prove an universal remedy for all their grievances and troubles.
23. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." And charge thy self with this, above all other cares, to set such a strict guard upon the inward thoughts, motions and affections of thy soul (which are besieged with many enemies) that thy consent be never obtained to anything, which thou oughtest to refuse: for thy living well or ill depends on this; and such as thy caution and watchfulness is in this, such will the actions of thy life be, which flow from thence.
24. "Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee." And as they that defend a city against an enemy set a strong guard at the gates and posterns, so do thou upon thy ears and upon thy mouth: never speaking things contrary to truth, honesty, and religion thy self, nor listening unto those that do, but banishing both, as far as is possible, from thy familiarity
25. "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." The eyes also are dangerous inlets into the heart, and therefore watch them well that they do not gaze about, and fasten on every object that invites them, but be fixed upon one scope, as thy thoughts ought to be, from which let nothing divert them.
26. "Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established." And before thou fixes and resolves upon any action, examine and weigh it thoroughly, whether it be agreeable to the rule of life, and the end thou aims at: and so thou shalt be constant to thy self, and confirmed in a steadfast course of well doing.
27. "Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil." From which do not suffer thy self to be drawn aside, either to superstition on the one hand, or to contempt or neglect of religion on the other. Let neither love of friends nor hatred of enemies, neither hope of pleasure and gain, nor fear of pain and damage, neither prosperous nor cross events ever move thee to turn into either extremes from the rule of virtue, but, whatsoever inclination thou findest that way, do not proceed to commit the least sin against God or against thy neighbor.