Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3522

3522 Benefiting from the grace of God....

August 24, 1945: Book 45

Too little use is made of God's grace, and that is why people are in such great spiritual need. They don't let it take effect although it is available to them without measure. For they lack the will to make use of God's help because they don't believe in Him and therefore not in His willingness to help, in His love and His power. God knows about people's weakness, about their lack of strength to strive upwards, and therefore He wants to give them strength, He wants to support them in every way so that they will reach their aim; He wants to help them and demands nothing more from them than that they want to be helped, that they gratefully accept His support, that they open themselves to the supply of strength.... that they therefore allow the blessings, the means of help, to take effect, that they use them and thereby prove their will to come closer to God. But this first requires faith in Him. If this faith is missing, then the human being will never be willing to make use of His grant of grace. And then it will never be possible for him to progress in his development. For he will not take the path of ascent on his own because the temptations on the part of God's adversary are too strong for him to be able to resist them. Without divine help he is too weak, and this weakness can only be remedied if God grants the human being His grace, i.e. the human being makes use of the grace he is entitled to. He does this by consciously requesting grace, strength and protection and help.... Then he confesses his faith in a God Who can help and wants to help. And the human being must be aware of his weakness, his inadequacy, he must turn to God in humble prayer that He will have mercy on his weakness, that He will help him in spiritual as well as physical adversity. Then God will dispense His grace without measure, He will consider the human being according to his faith, He will strengthen him and remedy his spiritual and earthly hardship. For God is a God of love Who lifts up to Himself everything that is weak and fallen, Who raises up what is depressed, Who gives strength to the weak, help to the helpless, even if the human being does not deserve it..... Only His gift must be requested and gratefully received.... And people fail to do this and are therefore in a spiritual low from which they cannot save themselves alone. They need God's grace, and if they spurn this God's adversary has an easy game. For he will supply them with strength, yet since it comes from below it will only be used for bad thoughts and bad deeds, and humanity will sink ever lower.... But God respects people's free will. He does not force His grace upon them but leaves it up to them whether they want to accept it and let it take effect on them or carelessly spurn God's grace.... And according to their will they will now be considered, yet without God's grace no-one can become blissfully happy....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers