FROM FEAR TO FREEDOM

"Presumptive self-confidence may look like faith, but it has a very different spiritual root (Jer. 17:5-10). Faith and presumption look alike because both qualities are characterized by confidence... [But] what does presumptive faith depend on for its existence? It must have positive circumstances and feelings of success based on visible accomplishments. So when God wants to reach us, he must take away those favorable circumstances and accomplishments." (p.16-17)

"Spiritual orphans see themselves as humble sufferers in their emotional pain. But in fact they are simply closed off people who are too proud and fearful (the two are closely related) to admit failure, imperfections, and sins, and acknowledge their complete dependence on God." (p.18)

"...to acknowledge wrong or extend forgiveness--the two things fallen people desperately need, and the two things self-righteous people cannot bring themselves to do." (p.33)

"Why didn't I grieve... over my failed relationship with... ? The answer lies in my self-protective religious outlook. As a religious moralist I understood grace as seen as an add-on to my strength. I could not admit that I was flawed in my close personal relationships and needed powerful intervention from above. I was the self-dependent Pharisee. My primary supports were family tradition, an outwardly obedient religious life, and my proven moral character." (p.42)

"I held on--almost desperately now--to my view of myself as the wounded innocent, still caught in the vicious circle of blaming my circumstances, reacting with negative feelings to these circumstances by flight, and then, by the analysis of my feelings, acting like a victim. I had not yet clearly seen my sin as being against God." (p.50)

"Frustrations can cripple us or lead us to ask revelatory questions. We have a choice. A right response leads us to reject the role of victim." (p. 53)

— Rose Marie Miller, From Fear to Freedom (1994)