img_03905So loving is God’s hand as it handles our hearts!  So skillful is it in bringing its strength to us without depriving us of freedom, and in imparting to us the movement resulting from its power without hindering the movement of our will!  He adjusts his power to his sweetness in such wise that just as in what concerns the good his power gently gives us power, so his sweetness powerfully maintains the freedom of the will.  “If you had known the gift of God,” says the Savior to the Samaritan woman, “and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.” . . .  It is as though he had said, “You would have the power to ask, and you would be aroused to ask, but you would in no way be forced or constrained to ask.  It is only perhaps that you would have asked.  Your liberty to ask for it or not to ask for it would have remained.”

TLG 1, 2:12, 133