February2000

Nothing can separate you from God's love, absolutely nothing . . . God is enough for time, God is enough for eternity. God is enough!

--Hannah Whitall Smith

As sure as ever God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.

--Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus.

--A. B. Simpson

Sometimes the Lord rides out the storm with us and other times He calms the restless sea around us. Most of all, He calms the storm inside us in our deepest inner soul.

--Lloyd John Ogilvie

This is the purpose of pain for the redeemed: it is one of your Father's ways of speaking to you; it is the evidence of His limitless love, by which He would draw you farther from evil and closer to Him, the divine remedy which can cure you of pride and help you lean more trustingly on the Lord.

--Walter A. Maier

Often, in the midst of great problems, we stop short of the real blessing God has for us, which is a fresh vision of who He is.

--Anne Graham Lotz

God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets, which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.

--E. A. Kilbourne

What a comfort to know that our lot is cast by the Lord, our gifts are of His appointing, and our life work planned way back there in eternity! Such assurance does not lead to inaction; it leads to freedom of action with the right kind of confidence.

--Arthur Custance

We do not understand the intricate pattern of the stars in their courses, but we know that He who created them does, and that just as surely as He guides them, He is charting a safe course for us.

--Billy Graham

God has a thousand ways

Where I can see not one;

When all my means have reached their end

Then His have just begun.

--Esther Guyot

When you accept the fact that sometimes seasons are dry and times are hard and that God is in control of both, you will discover a sense of divine refuge, because the hope then is in God and not in yourself.

--Charles Swindoll

Lift up your eyes. The heavenly Father waits to bless you-in inconceivable ways to make your life what you never dreamed it could be.

--Anne Ortlund

The tragedies that now blacken and darken the very air of heaven for us, will sink into their places in a scheme so august, so magnificent, so joyful, that we shall laugh for wonder and delight.

--Arthur Christopher Bacon

God possesses infinite knowledge and an awareness which is uniquely His. At all times, even in the midst of any type of suffering, I can realize that He knows, loves, watches, understands, and more than that, He has a purpose.

--Billy Graham

God speaks to us through our desires, then as we lay them at His feet, He helps us sort them out and quiets our hearts to accept what He has already prepared.

--Rosalind Rinker

When we won't let ourselves be held in the midst of our messes by God who loves us and made us, we miss the unspeakable joy of knowing that we are truly His beloved.

--Deborah Newman

Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.

--Dwight L. Moody

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

--George MacDonald

God makes all chosen souls pass through a fearful time of poverty, misery, and nothingness. He desires to destroy in them gradually all the help and confidence they derive from themselves so that He may be their sole source of support, their confidence, their hope, their only resource.

--Jean-Pierre de Caussade

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this: irritations get into his shell . . . . And when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only prescription: make a pearl . . . . And it takes faith and love to do it.

--Harry Emerson Fosdick

The God who created, names and numbers the stars in the heavens also numbers

the stars of my head. . . . He pays attention to very big things and to very small ones. What matters to me matters to Him, and that changes my life.

--Elisabeth Elliot

God walks with us. . . . He scoops us up in His arms or simply sits with us in silent strength until we cannot avoid the awesome recognition that yes, even now, He is there.

--Gloria Gaither

Snuggle in God's arms. When you are hurting, when you feel lonely . . . let Him cradle you, comfort you, reassure you of His all-sufficient power and love.

--Kay Arthur

The most glorious promises of God are generally fulfilled in such a wondrous manner that He steps forth to save us at a time when there is the least appearance of it.

--C. H. von Bogatzy

We say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also; or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a sense of certainty that cannot be shaken.

--Amy Carmichael, "Gold Cord"

Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart.

--Ellen G. White

(Note: while it is acknowledged that the author quoted above espoused

some beliefs and theologies which are contrary to mainstream

Christianity, the truth of what is quoted here remains strong. It is

included here because of its reflection on the total Christian experience.)

He leads us on through all the unquiet years;

Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears,

He guides our steps, through all the tangled maze

Of losses, sorrows, and o'erclouded days;

We know His will is done;

And still He leads us on.

--N. L. Zinzendorf

Don't trust to hold God's hand; let Him hold yours. Let Him do the holding, and you the trusting.

--Hammer William Webb-Peploe

If you feel stuck, bring your whole self to Christ, not just the problem,

but you. Ask God to change your heart. Commit yourself to pray to that end.

It's God's heart to give good gifts to His children.

--Sheila Walsh