God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Most of us find comfort in being told that we are going to go on living; [the apostle] Paul was comforted when he was told that he would soon be dying [see Philippians 1:21]! He kept referring to death as that which was 'far better.' The fact that we don't view death with optimism just might be because we think of death as taking us from our home rather than bringing is to our home! Unlike Paul, we have become so attached to our tent that we just don't want to move.
Form the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is more – depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to Him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves… Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find Him.
