Job 13:15 -Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him… I have just recently received a realignment in my relationship with the God who is my Father and Savior. As I am sitting here typing in pain, unable to swallow yet, waiting for the various swellings from my operation to heal, I have…
The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth,…
God did not take away Paul’s thorn; He did better—He mastered that thorn, and made it Paul’s servant. The ministry of thorns has often been a greater ministry to man than the ministry of thrones. – Lettie B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, (Los Angeles, CA: The Oriental Missionary Society, 1925), 362.
“The most deeply taught Christians are generally those who have been brought into the searching fires of deep soul-anguish. If you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be surprised if He takes you aside into a desert place, or leads you into a furnace of pain.” Do not punish me, Lord,…
Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. The great object of this life is character. This is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity.… To gain the most of it and the best of it is the object of probation. — Austin Phelps.
“There is no short cut to the life of faith, which is the all-vital condition of a holy and victorious life. We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with God. That our souls should have their mountains of fellowship, their valley of quiet rest beneath the shadow of a great rock, their nights…
Growth is often a painful process. It is through difficulty amid distress that God enlarges us. Are your troubles enlarged? It is important that you not waste your trials by simply enduring them or wanting to be delivered from them. Allow trials to have their “perfect work” of enlarging you for a greater ministry.
Many a time, [suffering] is necessary discipline for us in the building of our own characters. Mark you, God’s great concern is for what we are, not what we seem to be, for our inner, deeper selves. Again and again, trouble is God’s disciplinary teacher to give us the experience that will refine us, teach…
A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? ((Proverbs 18:14)) Some have talked about having a crushed spirit.7 One has been disappointed in love—sad, but a trial that can be endured. We have no right to love the creature so much as to make it our idol. Some have…
Someone has said, “If you are looking for a leader to follow, find someone with a limp.” The wounded in life are those who have learned difficult lessons through suffering. Do not resist the Shepherd’s rod of correction. Is the wounding painful? Indeed. Does it seem that you will not be able to bear it?…
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.” – 1 Peter 2:21 When you submit to Jesus Christ and obey the Word of God, He is going to arch a rainbow of hope over your suffering. He is going to write…
There is nothing on earth more beautiful to see than suffering transmuted into love. To say that the bitter cup can be drunk heroically is no more than every brave man or woman knows already, but to say that one soul’s hurt and suffering can distill out life and strength and healing for others—that is…