What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them. We must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly. A.W. Tozer

God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them. Max Lucado

Do not fear the conflict, and do not flee from it; where there is no struggle, there is no virtue.  John of Kronstadt

Though there is nothing more dangerous, yet there is nothing more ordinary, than for weak saints to make their sense and feeling the judge of their condition. We must strive to walk by faith. Thomas Brooks

The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. Thomas Watson

I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary. C.H. Spurgeon

I have not so great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous as they are, as I have with my impatience. My efforts are not absolutely useless; yet I have never been able to conquer this ferocious wild beast.  John Calvin

Our first problem is that our attitude towards sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own “Victory” over sin than we are about the fact that our sin grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.  Jerry Bridges

No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He put them in the fire. George MacDonald

If thou dost not stumble at this stone, the devil hath another at hand to throw in the way. He is not so unskillful a fowler as to go with one single shot into the field; and therefore expect him, as soon as he hath discharged one, and missed thee, to let fly at thee with a second. William Gurnall

Perhaps God has been speaking to you and you wonder why you have troubles. Maybe you have suffered a financial loss and you find it very difficult to understand. Is God speaking to you in an effort to bring you back to Himself? You need to face these matters squarely and be honest with God as He deals with you. Theodore Epp

Afflictions are not to punish, but to purify the believing soul. They are not in wrath, but in mercy. Amidst the distresses and miseries of life – it is a felicity to belong to Christ, without whose permission and appointment, no evil can befall us! He always sends afflictions for our good; and knows by experience, what it is to suffer them. His kind hand will speedily put an end to all the pains we feel when we have derived from them all the good which He intends to do for us, by them. John Fawcett

Your afflictions may only prove that you are more immediately under the Father’s hand. There is no time that the patient is such an object of tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is bleeding beneath his knife. So you may be sure if you are suffering from the hand of a reconciled God, that His eye is all the more bent on you. Robert Murray McCheyne

I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty and strengthened by my weakness… What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! Those, how crabbed soever, are our best friends. They are not intended for our pleasure, they are for our profit. Unknown Puritan

The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow-creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient. John Newton

No matter what storm you face, you need to know that God loves you. He has not abandoned you. Franklin Graham

As the world is wearied of me so am I of it. John Knox

Those who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls. C.H. Spurgeon

The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden. Phillips Brooks

Give up the struggle and the fight; relax in the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus; look up into His lovely face and as you behold Him, He will transform you into His likeness. You do the beholding–He does the transforming. There is no short-cut to holiness.  Alan Redpath

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction. C.H. Spurgeon

God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29). Jerry Bridges

An honest heart ceases fighting against God.

The first step toward a daily following of Christ is the denying of self.

The Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing.

Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us.

Chastisement is designed for our good, to promote our highest interests. Look beyond the rod to the All-wise hand that wields it!

Instead of complaining at his lot, a contented man is thankful that his condition and circumstances are no worse than they are. Instead of greedily desiring something more than the supply of his present need, he rejoices that God still cares for him. Such an one is “content” with such as he has.

No verse of Scripture yields its meaning to lazy people.

Just as the sinner’s despair of any hope from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer’s growth in grace.

Though poor in this world’s goods, though grieving the loss of loved ones, though suffering pain of body, though harassed by sin and Satan, though hated and persecuted by worldlings, whatever be the case and lot of the Christian, it is both his privilege and duty to rejoice in the Lord.

Taking up my “cross” means a life voluntarily surrendered to God.

Satan is not an initiator but an imitator.

As Christ has a Gospel, Satan has a gospel too; the latter being a clever counterfeit of the former. So closely does the gospel of Satan resemble that which it parades, multitudes of the unsaved are deceived by it.

The gospel of Satan announces salvation by character, which reverses the order of God’s Word–character by, as the fruit of, salvation.

In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works.

Satan is ever seeking to inject that poison into our hearts to distrust God’s goodness – especially in connection with his commandments. That is what really lies behind all evil, lusting and disobedience. A discontent with our position and portion, a craving from something which God has wisely held from us. Reject any suggestion that God is unduly severe with you. Resist with the utmost abhorrence anything that causes you to doubt God’s love and his lovingkindness toward you. Allow nothing to make you question the Father’s love for his child.

The Devil is well pleased if he can get the awakened sinner to look at anything rather than Christ — good works, repentance, feelings, resolutions, baptism, anything so long as it is not Christ Himself.

There is a Holy Trinity, and there is likewise a Trinity of Evil.

Sin is more than an act or a series of acts; it is a man’s make-up.

Unbelief, and a thousand evils, are still in our hearts: though their reign and dominion is at an end, they are not slain or eradicated; their efforts will be felt more or less sensibly, as the Lord is pleased more or less to afford or abate His gracious influence.

Every Christian will readily allow that sin is insidious, but it is one thing to recognize this in theory and quite another to be regulated by it in practice.

Faithful people have always been in a marked minority.

After grief for sin there should be joy for forgiveness.

Bring your beliefs to the test of the Scriptures, and you are likely to discover that it is much harder and more painful to unlearn some things than it is to learn new ones.

The permanence of God’s character guarantees the fulfillment of his promises.

Yes, give thanks for “all things” for, as it has been well said “Our disappointments are but His appointments.”

Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude – an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God.

Real prayer is communion with God, so that there will be common thoughts between His mind and ours. What is needed is for Him to fill our hearts with His thoughts, and then His desires will become our desires flowing back to Him.

The worldling thinks the real Christian is crazy, the Christian knows the poor worldling is spiritually insane.

When we complain about the weather, we are, in reality, murmuring against God.

The ultimate destiny of every individual is decided by the will of God, and blessed it is that such be the case; if it were left to our wills, the ultimate destination of us all would be the lake of fire.

The hardest task before most of us is not to learn, but to unlearn. Many of God’s own children have drunk so deeply of the sweetened poison of Satan, that it is by no means easy to get it out of their systems; and while it remains in them, it stupefies their understanding.

How little does the twentieth-century evangelist resemble those of the first.

God has the absolute right to do as He pleases with the creatures of His own hand.

Politics give Christ no place and where Christ has no place His followers must have none. The Lord Jesus has left us an example that we should follow His steps, but we search the records of His earthly life in vain to discover any mention of Him taking any part in the politics of Palestine in His day.

The cross is the only place where men can truly find God, and the incarnate Son the only One in whom God can be adequately known.

It is harder to die to our virtues than to our vices; but the one is just as necessary as the other for perfect union. Our attachments are the stronger as they are more spiritual.

Whenever we endeavor to bring about our own perfection, or that of others, by our own efforts, the result is simply imperfection.

No one will gain all without having lost all.

I was poor in the midst of riches, and ready to perish with hunger near a table plentifully spread and a continual feast. Oh, Beauty, ancient and new! Why have I known thee so late? Alas, I sought thee where thou wast not, and did not seek thee where thou wast…

God is greatly grieved at the lack of trust among His children. Yet He delights when we come to Him in simple, childlike confidence.

He that regards self only with horror, is beginning to be the delight of God.

The more we learn what humility is, the less we discover of it in ourselves.

It is only by the death of self that the soul can enter into Divine Truth, and understand in part what is the light that shineth in darkness.

Ah Lord! who seest the secrets of the heart, Thou knowest if I yet expect anything from myself, or if there be anything which I would refuse to Thee!

To take and receive all things not in ourselves, but in God, is the true and excellent way of dying to ourselves and living only to God.

All that I know is that God is infinitely holy, righteous and happy; that all goodness is in Him; and that, as to myself, I am a mere nothing.

I have learnt to love the darkness of sorrow; there you see the brightness of His face.

The harmlessness of the dove consists in not judging another; the wisdom of the serpent in distrusting ourselves.

I have never found any who prayed so well as those who had never been taught how. They who have no master in man, have one in the Holy Spirit.

Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God.

He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart.

God does not contradict Himself. It is true that he who seeks God, yet is unwilling to forsake his sins, will not find Him.  But he who seeks God and forsakes sin will certainly find Him.

By the alternations of interior union and desertion, God sometimes makes us feel what He is, and sometimes gives us to perceive what we are. He does the latter to make us hate and die to ourselves, but the former to make us love Him, and to exalt us into union.

My earnest wish is to paint in true colors the goodness of God to me, and the depth of my own ingratitude.

He who has learned to seek nothing but the will of God, shall always find what he seeks.

I henceforth take Jesus Christ to be mine. I promise to receive Him as a husband to me. And I give myself to Him, unworthy though I am, to be His spouse. I ask of Him, in this marriage of spirit with spirit, that I may be of the same mind with Him — meek, pure, nothing in myself, and united in God’s will. And, pledged as I am to be His, I accept as part of my marriage portion, the temptations and sorrows, the crosses and the contempt which fell to Him.

I, being in the Bastille, said to Thee, O my God, If thou art pleased to render me a spectacle to men and angels, thy holy will be done! All I ask is that thou wilt be with and save those who love thee.

God allows suffering, but never allows wrong. I see clearly that it is His will that I should remain in prison and endure the pains which are connected with it; and I am entirely content that it should be so. I can never buy my liberty at the expense of sacrificing my daughter.

A lot of people say, well how can a loving God send anyone to hell? First of all God doesn’t send anyone to hell. If we go to hell, it’s by our own choice. But when somebody says to me, how can a loving God allow anyone to go to hell, I’ll turn around and say, “Well how can a holy, just, righteous God allow sin into His presence?”

Why don’t the names of Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius offend people? The reason is that these others didn’t claim to be God, but Jesus did.

If Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be, and He did die on a cross at a point of time in history, then, for all history past and all history future it is relevant because that is the very focal point for forgiveness and redemption.

Wherever Jesus has been proclaimed, we see lives change for the good, nations change for the better, thieves become honest, alcoholics become sober, hateful individuals become channels of love, unjust persons embrace justice.

Many people entertain the idea that Christianity, like almost any other religion, is basically a system of beliefs-you know, a set of doctrines or a code of behavior, a philosophy, an ideology. But that’s a myth. Christianity is not at all like Buddhism or Islam or Confucianism. The founders of those religions said (in effect), ‘Here is what I teach. Believe my teachings. Follow my philosophy.’ Jesus said, ‘Follow me’ (Matthew 9:9). Leaders of the world’s religions said, ‘What do you think about what I teach?’ Jesus said, ‘Who do you say I am?’(Luke 9:20)”

Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.

When God balances the scales morally, it is not some standard outside Himself He looks at and then determines whether this is right or wrong. But rather it’s His very nature, it is His very character and nature that is the standard by which He judges.

Prayer is talking with God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart.

Normally when I’ve been in the position where I’ve felt little love for God, it’s because I haven’t understood how much He loves me. The more I understand how much He loves me, I mean it’s unbelievable, it’s almost parallel the more I come to love Him, that’s been my response.

The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes – undisturbed in form and position.

What you are as a single person, you will be as a married person, only to a greater degree. Any negative character trait will be intensified in a marriage relationship, because you will feel free to let your guard down — that person has committed himself to you and you no longer have to worry about scaring him off.

The Old Testament records the preparation for the coming of the Messiah. The Gospels record the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord. The book of Acts records the propagation of the gospel (the good news) concerning Jesus Christ. The Epistles (letters) explain the gospel and its implications for our lives. The book of Revelation anticipates and describes the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His eternal kingdom. From beginning to end, the Bible glorifies Jesus Christ and centers on Him. Its Christ-centeredness is one of its wonderful features.

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.  Albert Schweitzer

God has chosen us to help one another.  Smith Wigglesworth

We’re here to be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker…The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.  AW Tozer

God is not greater if you reverence Him, but you are greater if you serve Him.   Augustine

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.   Henry Ward Beecher

It’s not important how many people you lead, but how many you serve.  Woodrow Kroll

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.  Charles Wesley

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.  Hudson Taylor

God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out. The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: ‘Use me.’  Rick Warren

Your spiritual gifts were not given for your own benefit but for the benefit of others, just as other people were given gifts for your benefit.  Rick Warren

Does God ask us to do what is beneath us? This question will never trouble us again if we consider the Lord of heaven taking a towel and washing feet.   Elisabeth Elliot

Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.   Adrian Rogers

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.   Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The humblest occupation has in it materials of discipline for the highest heaven.   Frederick W. Robertson

This is a sane, wholesome, practical, working faith: That it is a man’s business to do the will of God; second, that God himself takes on the care of that man; and third, that therefore that man ought never to be afraid of anything.   George Macdonald

God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.   John Henry Newman

We don’t serve God to gain His acceptance; we are accepted so we serve God. We don’t follow Him in order to be loved; we are loved so we follow Him.   Neil T. Anderson

We are immortal till our work is done.   George Whitefield

Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.   Vance Havner

Do today’s duty, fight today’s temptation; do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.   Charles Kingsley

I have a secret thought from some things I have observed, that God may perhaps design you for some singular service in the world.   David Brainerd

When you cease from labour, fill up your time in reading, meditation, and prayer: and while your hands are labouring, let your heart be employed, as much as possible, in divine thoughts.  David Brainerd

If faith produces no works, I see that faith is not a living tree. Thus faith and works together grow, No separate life they never can know. They’re soul and body, hand and heart, What God hath joined, let no man part.   Hannah More

Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.   Martin Luther

Our Father makes many a flower to bloom unseen in the lonely desert, [let us] do all that we can do, as under God’s eye, though no other eye ever take note of it.   Hudson Taylor

George Macdonald said, ‘If you knew what God knows about death you would clap your listless hands’, but instead I find old people in North America just buying this whole youth obsession. I think growing older is a wonderful privilege. I want to learn to glorify God in every stage of my life.   Elisabeth Elliot

You are never used of God to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see things as they are.   Alan Redpath

How imperfect is our willingness and how fickle is our condition!   Watchman Nee

The Lord wants us to be used, yes; but what He is after is that we pour all we have, ourselves, to Him, and if that be all, that is enough.   Watchman Nee

All satanic works are performed from the outside inward; all divine works from the inside outward.   Watchman Nee

There is no work better than to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all are one; to wash dishes and to preach are all one, as touching the deed, to please God.   William Tyndale

Length of life should be measured not by the number of years but by the number of right actions.   Desiderius Erasmus

One’s task is not to turn the world upside down, but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality.   Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.

All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient.

I will go down, if you will hold the ropes.

Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.

You have been speaking about William Carey. When I am gone, say nothing about William Carey-speak only about William Carey’s Saviour.”

Prayer – secret, fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness.

To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map.

When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph.

Many can do nothing but pray, and prayer is perhaps the only thing in which Christians of all denominations can cordially, and unreservedly unite; but in this we may all be one, and in this the strictest unanimity ought to prevail. Were the whole body thus animated by one soul, with what pleasure would Christians attend on all the duties of religion, and with what delight would their ministers attend on all the business of their calling.

Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.

What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

Is it any merit to abstain from wine if one is intoxicated with anger?

God chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may believe.

Thou didst seek us when we sought Thee not; didst seek us indeed that we might seek Thee.

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

To be assured of our salvation is no arrogant stoutness. It is faith. It is devotion. It is not presumption. It is God’s promise.

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man’s wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.

Lord, make me chaste – but not yet. Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we don’t want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: ‘This way, please.’ Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you.

Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin; whosoever has it, has not himself.

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion; I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.

How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!… You drove them from me, You who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, You who are sweeter than all pleasure.

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will.

Do what you can and pray for what you cannot yet do.

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.