Quote 465
Do you know who the truly handicapped people are? They are the ones-and many of them are Christians-who hear the alarm clock go off at 7:30 in the morning, throw back the covers, jump out of bed, take a quick shower, choke down breakfast, and zoom out the front door. They do all this on automatic pilot without stopping once to acknowledge their Creator, their great God who gives them life and strength each day. Christian, if you live that way, do you know that James 4:6 says God opposes you?
Joni Eareckson Tada
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (196)1.7K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. Else they have a defective heart or a flameless hell.(Lasaunne conference)
The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of scattered grace. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God(106)
Those who know true joy in the midst of suffering are those who recognize that, in this life, our suffering is never as great or as serious as our sins. Humility: True Greatness (Chapter 11)
As sure as God puts His children in the furnace he will be in the furnace with them.
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
Look rather at God's end in afflicting, than to the measure and degree of your affliction.
There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.
Do you wonder about the trials in your life? Well let me just let you know the purpose of them is to cut away everything in your life, so that Jesus does become your life, and it's worth it.
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
I want to stay in the habit of 'glancing' at my problems and 'gazing' at my Lord.
Sickness, and losses, and crosses, and anxieties, and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful, and spiritual minded. Holiness (Chapter 6)
There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of the counsels of men, and his making of the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering [disclosing] the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and storm.... We are apt to overshoot, in the days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us.... We could not live without such turnings of the hand of God upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there.
If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart.
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.
I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages
The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
God answered Job's questions not with words but with himself.
sometimes God chooses to bless us and make us people of integrity in the midst of abominable circumstances, rather than change our circumstances.
How far less [are] the greatest afflictions that we meet with in this world...than we have deserved! The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), (Page 321)
God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.
Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it-likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.
To this I added, suppose a kingdom had long been overrun by the enemies of its true king, and he though possessed of sufficient power to conquer them, should yet suffer them to prevail, and establish themselves as much as they could desire, would not the valor and wisdom of that king be far more conspicuous in exterminating them, than it would have been if he had opposed them at first, and prevented their entering the country? Thus by the diffusion of gospel light, the wisdom, power, and grace of God will be more conspicuous in overcoming such deep-rooted idolatries, and in destroying all that darkness and vice which have so universally prevailed in this country, than they would have been if all had not been suffered to walk in their own ways for so many ages past.
The painful things that come into our lives are not described by God as accidental or as out of his control. This would be no comfort. That God cannot stop a germ or a car or a bullet or a demon is not good news; it is not the news of the Bible. God can. And ten thousand times he does. But when he doesn't, he has his reasons. And in Christ Jesus they are all loving. We are taught this sovereignty so that we will drink it in till it saturates our bones. A Sweet and Bitter Providence, 136-37
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. The Problem of Pain(93)
Why is it that we want every chapter to be good when God promises only that in the last chapter he will make all the other chapters make sense, and he doesn't promise we'll see that last chapter here? Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (120)
Top Authors
1. Charles Spurgeon (115)
2. J.C. Ryle (111)
3. Thomas Watson (108)
4. John Calvin (83)
5. John Piper (82)
6. J.I. Packer (76)
7. George Swinnock (69)
8. Louis Berkhof (62)
9. A.W. Pink (60)
10. C.S. Lewis (51)
11. Francis Schaeffer (48)
12. Gerald Bray (47)
13. B.B. Warfield (45)
14. John Owen (44)
15. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (43)
16. Tim Keller (42)
17. Joe Boot (42)
18. Abraham Kuyper (40)
19. John Flavel (38)
20. Thomas Brooks (36)
2. J.C. Ryle (111)
3. Thomas Watson (108)
4. John Calvin (83)
5. John Piper (82)
6. J.I. Packer (76)
7. George Swinnock (69)
8. Louis Berkhof (62)
9. A.W. Pink (60)
10. C.S. Lewis (51)
11. Francis Schaeffer (48)
12. Gerald Bray (47)
13. B.B. Warfield (45)
14. John Owen (44)
15. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (43)
16. Tim Keller (42)
17. Joe Boot (42)
18. Abraham Kuyper (40)
19. John Flavel (38)
20. Thomas Brooks (36)
Top Topics
1. Sin (161)2. Prayer (117)
3. Scripture (106)
4. Preaching (103)
5. Faith (94)
6. Gospel (76)
7. Church (65)
8. Suffering (63)
9. Law (58)
10. Justification (49)
11. Truth (47)
12. Salvation (40)
13. Love (36)
14. Theology (36)
15. Grace (34)
16. Creation (33)
17. Children (31)
18. Holiness (31)
19. Sanctification (31)
20. Apologetics (30)
21. Fear (30)
22. Unbelief (30)
23. Marriage (29)
24. Pride (28)
25. Christ (27)
26. Government (27)