Suffering (64)
Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. Else they have a defective heart or a flameless hell.
John Piper
(Lasaunne conference)10.6K
there is something far more dreadful than physical calamity and suffering, namely, moral delinquency and spiritual apostasy. Alas, that this is so rarely perceived today!The Life of Elijah. Chapel Library.
The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of scattered grace. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God(106)
The best trees have a winter, wherein they seem to be dead and barren, yet they have their life and sap at that time remaining in the root. Christians under desertions and temptations may be judged by themselves and others to be dead and undone, but even at such seasons their life is hid with Christ in God; though they may fall foully, they cannot fall finally.The Christian Man\'s Calling
Those which are afflicted by God in trials should pray to be bettered before they are delivered.
Be patient; it is better to be a chastened saint than a carefree sinner.
In goodness and sovereignty God permits evil, punishes evil with evil, brings good from evil and redeems from evil.
Let us be content that God should rule the world; learn to acquiesce in his will, and submit to his providence. Does any affliction befall you? Remember God sees it is that which is fit for you, or it would not come. Your clothes cannot be so fit for you as your crosses. God's providence may sometimes be secret—but it is always wise; and though we may not be silent under God's dishonor—yet we should learn to be silent under his displeasure.A Body of Divinity p. 125 Banner of Truth
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.
God is forced to mortify sins by afflictions, because we mortify them not by the Spirit.
There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.
If you ask, 'Why is this happening?' no light may come, but if you ask, 'How am I to glorify God now?' there will always be an answer.
Afflictions are God's furnace, by which he cleanses his people from their dross. Affliction is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make virtue shine. Afflictions are medicines which heal soul diseases, better than all the remedies of physicians.Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
Afflictions on the godly are fruits of covenant-mercy. 2 Sam vii 14. Afflictions on the wicked are effects of God's wrath.The Ten Commandments, 30
usually he empties such of themselves, and makes them nothing, before he will use them in any great services.The Bruised Reed (3)
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.
It is not what enemies will, nor what they are resolved upon, but what God will, and what God appoints; that shall be done.... No enemy can bring suffering upon a man when the will of God is otherwise, so no man can save himself out of their hands when God will deliver him up for his glory.
If all is well and this world is all that matters, a pastor may become jealous of prosperous people who spend their time in leisure. But if suffering abounds, and if prosperity is a cloak for the true condition of frisky, fun-loving perishing Americans, then being a pastor may be the most important and glorious of all work.
God himself will have his servants tried and exercised by difficulties. He never intended us the reward for sitting still; nor the crown of victory, without a fight.
God wills that which is good, by approving it; that which is evil — in as much as it is evil — by disallowing and forsaking it. And yet, He voluntarily permits evil, because it is good that there should be evil.
The goal of Christian life is not to avoid troubles, disappointments, sorrows and injuries-but in all these experiences, to keep free from sin and stain.
when a Christian shall be called from wealth to want, from prosperity to persecution, if he can say, I know that Christ and his cross usually go together; I know that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution, and that I must, through many tribulations, enter into the kingdom of heaven; I know that religion might cost me my estate, my limbs, my liberty, and my life; that if I would reign with Christ, I must suffer with him. All this I know beforehand, and I resolved upon it, and provided for it. The cross will never break the back of this man.
They that have smarted with inward wounds themselves, have the more reason to compassionate others in their sorrows.
If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart.
It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here.
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For though Christ's human nature, which was the instrument in the obedience and sufferings, was finite, yet this does not lessen the value of the satisfaction, because it derives its perfection from the divine person of Christ, to which all his actions must be attributed; as he is the person who obeyed and suffered.
No storms, assaults, sieges, or pestilences, can hurt us, till we have filled up his appointed measure of service; and when our work is done, and he has ripened us for glory, it is no great matter by what means he is pleased to call us home to himself.
We write our benefits in dust and our injuries in marble. . . . It ought not so to be. If our memories were more tenacious of the merciful visitations of our God our faith would often be strengthened in times of trial.
If you think God has promised this world will be a five-star hotel, you will be miserable as you live through the normal struggles of life. But if you remember that God promised we would be pilgrims and this world may feel more like a desert or even a prison, you might find your life surprisingly happy.
The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.
How often is such the case with us: some sore trial presses, and we cry unto God for relief, but before His answer comes, matters appear to get worse. Ah, that is in order that His hand may be the more evident.
How can we who are so weak in ourselves, so inferior in power to the enemies confronting us, bear up under our trials which are so numerous, so protracted, so crushing? We could not, and therefore Divine grace has provided for us an all-sufficient Helper. Without His aid we had long since succumbed, mastered by our trials. Hope looks forward to the Glory to come; in the weary interval of waiting, the Spirit supports our poor hearts and keeps grace alive within us.
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.
The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.
God answered Job's questions not with words but with himself.
The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies.
Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with 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.
When you observe that the fire in your room is getting dull, you do not always put on more coal, but simply stir with the poker; so God often uses the black poker of adversity in order that the flames of devotion may burn more brightly.
Instead of a river, God often gives us a brook, which may be running today and dried up tomorrow. Why? To teach us not to rest in our blessings, but in the blesser Himself.
saints have chosen to suffer the worst of torments, rather than commit the least sinPrecious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
God makes afflictions to be but inlets to the soul's more sweet and full enjoyment of his blessed self.Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
sometimes God chooses to bless us and make us people of integrity in the midst of abominable circumstances, rather than change our circumstances.
Oh! what a merciful providence is it that, though God bruise his people, yet, while he is bruising them, he is doing them good! It is as if one should throw a bag of money at another, which bruises him a little, but yet it enriches him. Affliction enriches the soul, and yields the sweet fruits of righteousness.The Ten Commandments, 32
Afflictions on the godly make them better, but afflictions on the wicked make them worse. The godly pray more; Psa cxxx i. The wicked blaspheme more.The Ten Commandments, 30
At the threshold of his public ministry, he silenced the Baptist's objections to baptizing him with the words "thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness"-or, as the NEB puts it, "we do well to conform in this way with all that God requires" (Matt. 3:15). Unlike those others who were baptized by John in the Jordan, confessing their sins, it was with no consciousness of sin that he accepted baptism, but with the resolution to place himself unreservedly at God's disposal posal for the accomplishment of his saving purpose-and if, in doing so, he associated himself publicly with sinners, that was something which he was going to do throughout his ministry, until he was "numbered with the transgressors" on the cross.
The Epistle to the Hebrews
Hope is the key to the grieving process. It is what makes the difference between being in the downward spiral, headed to despair, and the upward spiral, leading to acceptance of one's loss and the ability to once again love and rejoice and feel with all of one's heart...This was Paul's point in writing to the Thessalonians, for he well knew the role of hope in the Christian life. It is the power that keeps one going, the fuel that runs the engine of the soul, the medicine that brings healing to a wounded heart. It gives strength to face an uncertain future, for it looks not to its own resources, but Christ.James White, Grieving: Your Path Back To Peace
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)
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? Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (196)
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)
We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed Apologeticus, 50
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