Grace for the Afflicted Quotes

“Whether God chooses to heal us or to supply us with sustaining grace, we can rest in knowing he is sovereign over all things (including demons) and he cares for us.”
― Matthew S. Stanford, Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness

“And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (2:7). When I heard that verse as a child, I imagined Adam lying on the ground, perfectly formed but not yet alive, with God leaning over him and performing a sort of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Now I picture that scene differently. I assume that Adam was already biologically alive—the other animals needed no special puff of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide to start them breathing, so why should man? The breath of God now symbolizes for me a spiritual reality. I see Adam as alive, but possessing only an animal vitality. Then God breathes into him a new spirit, and infills him with His own image. Adam becomes a living soul, not just a living body. God’s image is not an arrangement of skin cells or a physical shape, but rather an inbreathed spirit.”
― Matthew S. Stanford, Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness

“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
― Matthew S. Stanford, Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness