You can be sure of one thing, though: when you set yourself to seriously pursue holiness, you will begin to realize what an awful sinner you are. And if you are not firmly rooted in the gospel and have not learned to preach it to yourself every day, you will soon become discouraged and will slack off in your pursuit of holiness. (the Discipline of Grace, pg 60)

The Discipline of Grace.

God is no longer our judge. Through Christ He is now our Heavenly Father who disciplines us only out of love and only for our good...

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace...

God looks to see if we are trusting in the merit of His Son as our only hope for securing His blessing.

If the love of Christ for us is to be the motivating force for a life of discipleship (2 Cor. 5:14), how then can we come to the place where we are acutely conscious of His love? The answer is, through the gospel. It is, of course, the Holy Spirit who pours out His love into our hearts, but He does this through the message of the gospel. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross and that we are thereby forgiven. As we continually reflect upon that gospel, the Holy Spirit floods our hearts with a sense of God's love to us in Christ. And that sense of His love motivates us in a compelling way to live for Him.