Augustine's Confessions

It's been several years since I've read through Augustine's Confessions, but when Andy and I were cleaning through our living room last week we stumbled across a book called "Prayers From the Confessions" and have been reading a few every night. He thinks it's terribly boring when I post quotes on my blogs, but this was just so great that I wanted to post it. If you find quotes boring, I'm sorry! This one is well worth the read.

You owe us nothing, yet you pay our debts

"You are most high, O God, excellent, most powerful,
omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just,
most hidden yet intimately present,
infinitely beautiful and infinitely strong,
steadfast yet elusive,
unchanging yourself though you control
the change in all things,
never new, never old, renewing all things
yet wearing down the proud though they know it not;
ever active, ever at rest,
gathering while knowing no need,
supporting and filling and guarding,
creating and nurturing and perfecting,
seeking although you lack nothing.
You love without frenzy,
you are jealous yet secure,
you regret without sadness,
you grow angry yet remain tranquil,
you alter your works but never your plan;
you take back what you find
although you never lost it;
you are never in need
yet you rejoice in your gains,
never avaricious yet you demand profits.
You allow us to pay you more than you demand,
and so you become our debtor,
yet which of us possesses anything
that does not already belong to you?
You owe us nothing,yet you pay your debts;
you write off our debts to you,
yet you lose nothing thereby."