I suppose now is as good a time as any other to update on my post-gap year, pre-law school month-long holiday.

This break, I have been given ample time to do anything at all. It started off with shopping for a few new additions for my wardrobe. In an unforeseen turn of events, I happened to chance upon John Piper's When I Don't Desire God conference sermons (go listen to them on YouTube!) which have, to put it succinctly, changed my life. To follow up, I am reading What Jesus Demands from the World and digesting it slowly. I've also read (and therefore highly recommend) The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller on Kindle. This little book has shifted my perspective on life in a significant way. Despite the struggles of my human heart, God is still sovereign and there is yet hope.

School starts soon, so now I'm almost rushing to finish another book and sort of starting on a small book by R. C. Sproul. Books and sermons have opened my eyes and mind, convicted me on how I have been living wrongly, leading me towards what is right, and they have given me merciful spiritual slaps (thanks to Angeline for coining this term). Merciful, because God does not have to reveal anything to me but he does and still loves this sinner.

For this reason, my advice to you would be to cultivate the love of reading, yes, read good books! Feed on the Word and also on the books penned by those whom God has gifted experience and insight.

The following is an excerpt from The Prodigal God, and a reminder to myself. A fundamental insight of Martin Luther's was that “religion” is the default mode of the human heart. Religion operates on the principle of "I obey - therefore I am accepted by God." The basic operating principle of the gospel is "I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ - therefore I obey." 
Even after you are converted by the gospel, your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode. We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts.

Let us take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts - by reading, memorizing and meditating on the Word.