Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: A Brief Account of God’s Exceeding Mercy through Christ to His Poor Servant, John Bunyan (Bunyan Updated Classics Book 5)

by John Bunyan

I began to look into the Bible with new eyes and read as I never did before. The epistles of the apostle Paul were especially sweet and pleasant to me, and indeed, I was never then out of the Bible, either by reading or meditation. I was crying out to God that I might know the truth and the way to heaven and glory. As I continued to read, I came upon that passage, For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-9). And though, as I have since seen, that by these verses the Holy Spirit intends extraordinary and special things, I was convicted by these verses that I lacked even the basic things – even that understanding and wisdom that other Christians had.