The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

by Dallas Willard

A successful performance at a moment of crisis rests largely and essentially upon the depths of a self wisely and rigorously prepared in the totality of its being—mind and body.

The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy. This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it reality.

“Works” are simply a natural part of faith. James’s statement is about the inherent nature of faith, about what makes it up. It concerns what believing something really amounts to.