Elisabeth Elliot ~ can really deliver

"Recently I committed a sin of what seemed to me unpardonable thoughtlessness. For days I wanted to kick myself around the block. What is the matter with me? I thought. How could I have acted so? 'Fret not thyself because of evildoers' came to mind. In this case the evildoer was myself, and I was fretting. My fretting, I discovered, was a subtle kind of pride. 'I'm really not that sort of person,' I was saying. I did not want to be thought of as that sort of person. I was very sorry for what I had done, not primarily because I had failed someone I loved, but because my reputation would be smudged. When my reputation becomes my chief concern, my repentance has a hollow ring. No wonder Satan is called the deceiver. He has a thousand tricks, and we fall for them. Lord, I confess my sin of thoughtlessness and my sin of pride. I pray for a more loving and purer heart, for Jesus' sake."