pilgrim in progress

Last week I listened to Keller’s excellent message on Gospel Centered Ministry from the Gospel Coalition. In it he touches on the classic sermon by Thomas Chalmers ‘The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.’ Here is a great quote:

“It is seldom that any of our bad habits or flaws disappears by mere process of natural extinction. At least it is very seldom that this is done by the instrumentality of reasoning or by the force of mental determination. What cannot be destroyed however may be dispossessed. One taste may be made to give away to another and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection in the mind.A youth may cease to idolize sensual pleasure but it’s because the idol of wealth, the desire to make money has gotten the ascendancy so he becomes disciplined. But the love of money might actually cease to have mastery over his heart if it is drawn more to ideology and politics. Now he’s lorded over by the love of power and of moral superiority instead of wealth. But there is not one of these transformations in which the heart is left without an object. The human hearts’ desire for one particular object is conquered but its desire to have some ultimate object of adoration is unconquerable.

The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.”

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