1
God wants us to bring our everyday needs to Him, even if they appear
trivial. He doesn't demand that we approach Him only when we have raised ourselves to some kind of spiritual elevation above the everyday things of life. He comes to meet us where we are, and therein lies His greatness. When we come to Him with our "little things," we do Him great honor.
--R. Kent Hughes
2
God really is there. He really does exist, and He made us for Himself.
Knowing that He is there, and therefore that we do not live in a silent
universe, changes everything. To know that we can speak, and there is
Someone who will answer fills the vacuum of life that would otherwise be present. And then, when we realize His love for us as individuals--that Christ really did die for us as individuals, for us personally--life is entirely different.
--Francis A. Schaeffer
3
What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will be swept away, and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.
--A. W. Tozer
4
Our valleys may be filled with foes and tears; but we can lift our eyes to
the hills to see God and the angels, heaven's spectators, who support us
according to God's infinite wisdom as they prepare our welcome home.
--Billy Graham
5
Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into His service, and place all the hours of the day quite simply at His disposal, and ask Him to make and keep you ready to do just exactly what He appoints. Never mind about tomorrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it today, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful when tomorrow comes to ask Him to take it also.
--Francis Ridley Havergal
6
My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Thou divine Love, whose human path has been perfected through sufferings, teach me the glory of my cross, teach me the value of my thorn.
--George Matheson
7
God does not leave us comfortless, but we have to be in dire need of comfort to know the truth of His promise. It is in time of calamity . in days and nights of sorrow and trouble that the presence, the sufficiency, and the sympathy of God grow very sure and very wonderful. Then we find out that the grace of God is sufficient for all our needs, for every problem and for every difficulty, for every broken heart, and for every human sorrow.
--Peter Marshall
8
If He stood by Paul saying, "Fear not," just as really and maybe as
evidently will He stand by you. If He guided him in his work, restraining
him from preaching here, and calling him to service there, He will give you also leadings just as certain and maybe as distinct.
--J. Rendel Harris
9
Our life is full of brokenness-- bitter relationships, broken promises,
broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives?
--Henri Nouwen
10
There is not a spider hanging on the king's wall that does not have its
errand; there is not a nettle that grows in the corner of the churchyard
that does not have its purpose; there is not a single insect fluttering in
the breeze that does not accomplish some divine decree; and I will never have it that God created any man, especially any Christian man, to be a blank and to be a nothing. He made you for an end. Find out what that end is. Find out your niche and fill it. If it is ever so little, if it is only to be a chopper of wood and a drawer of water, do something in this great battle for God and truth.
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon
11
Jesus did not say, "Come to Me and get it over with." He said, "If any man would come after Me, let him take up his cross daily and follow Me." Daily is the key word. Our commitment to Christ, however genuine and whole-hearted it may be today, must be renewed tomorrow . and the day after that . and that day after that . until the path comes at last to the river.
--Louis Cassels
12
Rejoice in knowing that you belong to God and that He is conforming you to the image of His Son. See every event of this day as part of that process. Yield to the Spirit's prompting, and take heart that God will accomplish His will.
--John MacArthur
13
The idea of "practicing the presence of God" puzzled me for a long time, since God is always present with us whether we realize it or not. He may seem distant and even uncaring, though in reality He is always close to us. I finally came to realize that we need to place ourselves in His presence and continually practice seeking Him because our own pain, our own questions, our own unanswered prayers cause us to feel distant from Him.
--Sheila Cragg
14
Be encouraged, child of God. He loves you even in the midst of your pain. He loves you even when you don't love Him. He loves you when you feel utterly alone. He loves you with an everlasting love. Your suffering can take many things away form you--your health, your happiness, your prosperity, your popularity, your friends, your career, even your family. But there's one thing suffering can't take away: it can't take away the love of God.
--Ray Pritchard
15
As brilliantly as the sun shines through some days, there are many days that it does not shine at all. Some days the clouds cover the mountains, and I must remind myself they are still there. And so I must continually remember that it is God's love that perfects, that makes the windows of our lives clear, that helps us see. There's much we don't understand now. All the more reason to accept grace and praise Him exactly from where we are.
--Nancie Carmichael
16
Our personal afflictions involve the living God; the only way in which Satan can persecute or afflict God is through attacking the people of God. The only way we can have personal victory in the midst of these flying arrows raining down on us is to call upon the Lord for help. It is His strength, supplied to us in our weakness, that makes victory after victory possible.
--Edith Schaeffer
17
When the mind floats on the sea of the majesty of God and His
incomprehensibility, it is amazed and lost in wonder at the serene majesty of God. And forthwith the soul becomes humble, so that if it were possible, when the effulgence of God's majesty envelops it, it would take its place below the whole creation because of its awe and wondering amazement at the majesty of God, ineffable, incomprehensible as it is, beyond the penetration
of His servants.
--John of Lycopolis
18
The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
--Phillip Yancy
19
If you should temporarily lose your sense of well-being, don't be too quick to despair. With humility and patience, wait for God who is able to give you back even more comfort. There is nothing novel about this to those who are familiar with God's ways. The great saints and ancient prophets frequently experienced the alternation of up and down, joy and sorrow.
--Thomas à Kempis
20
He is with us on our journeys. He is there when we are home. He sits with us at our table. He knows about funerals and weddings and commencements and hospitals and jails and unemployment and labor and laughter and rest and tears. He knows because He is with us -- He comes to us again and again -- until we can say, "It's You! It's You!"
--Bob Benson
21
The Christ of Christmas shines down through the ages like a gem with many facets.
--Pam Whitley
22
I believe there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, and more
perfect than the Savior; there is in the world only one figure of absolute
beauty: Christ. --Fyodor Dostoyevsky
23
Who are the Wise Men now, when all is told?
Not men of science; not the great and strong;
Not those whose eager hands pile high the gold;
But those amid the tumult and the throng
Who follow still the Star of Bethlehem.
--B. Y. Williams
24
This is Christmas -- the real meaning of it.
God loving, searching, giving Himself -- to us.
Man needing, receiving, giving himself -- to God.
Redemption's glorious exchange of gifts!
Without which we cannot live;
Without which we cannot give to
those we love anything of lasting value.
This is the meaning of Christmas --
the wonder and glory of it.
--Ruth Bell Graham
25
Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ's birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehem's of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.
--Edward Hays
26
You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift.
--John R. Rice
27
Great as he was, Caesar Augustus is now only an echo of ancient times, while the name of the Child he had never heard of is spoken by millions with reverence and love.
--Walter Russell Bowie
28
Do you see that God's sometimes painful dealings with you are but an
extension of his fatherhood? Do you understand that his rebuke only affirms your glorious position as a child of God, who loves you enough to place his disciplining hand on your life?
--Charles Stanley
29
When life caves in, you do not need reasons -- you need comfort. You do not need some answers -- you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation -- He comes to us with His presence.
--Bob Benson
30
It is good to come to a future which you do not know. It is good if God
brings you to the borders of some promised land. Do not shrink from any experience merely because of its novelty. Do not draw back from any way just because you have never traveled there before. Oh, my friend, go into it today without fear! Only, go into it with god, the God who has been always with you. Remember what He has already done for you, and the new life to which He leads you shall open its best richness to you. For he who most humbly accepts what God already has given him and taught him is surest of the best and deepest blessings which God has yet to give.
--Phillips Brooks
31
Christians are people of hope and not despair because we know that God, who had the first word, will have the last. He is never thwarted or caught napping by the circumstances of our lives. To have faith in Jesus does not mean we try to pretend that bad things are really good. Rather we know that God will take our difficulties and weave them into purposes we cannot see as yet. And when He is done, the day will be more glorious for our having gone through the difficulties.
--Rebecca Manley Pippert
