John Newton: Better Than I Deserve

C.J. Mahaney is well-known for responding to questions of how he was doing with "Better than I deserve." What he meant by that was, "As a sinner I deserve absolutely nothing from God, so every good thing in my life is sheer grace; and as a child of God in the recipient of extravagant merciful promises like Romans 8:28, so every hard thing in my life is planned and purposed by my Father for good." Truly, I'm doing better than I deserve. 

"Under all trials and afflictions, the believer should look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved."