October99

On days when life is difficult and I feel overwhelmed, as I do fairly often, it helps to remember in my prayers that all God requires of me is to trust Him and be His friend. I find I can do that.

--Bruce Larson

It is in the deepest darkness of the starless midnight that men learn how to hold on to the hidden Hand most tightly and how that Hand holds them; that He sees where we do not, and knows the way He takes; and though the way be to us a roundabout way, it is the right way.

--A. T. Pierson

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean; at the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.

--St. Augustine

The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all.

--Richard J. Foster

Adversity is not simply a tool. It is God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity becomes easier to bear.

--Charles Stanley

God must've had a blast. Painting the stripes on the zebra, hanging the stars in the sky, putting the gold in the sunset. What creativity! Stretching the neck of the giraffe, putting the flutter in the mockingbird's wings, planting the giggle in the hyena. And then, as a finale to a brilliant performance, He made a human who had the unique honor to bear the stamp, "In His Image."

--Max Lucado

It won't be long before you will look back on that up-tight, high-powered, super-charged issue with a whole new outlook. To be quite candid, you may laugh out loud in the future at something you're eating your heart out over today.

--Charles Swindoll

I can't understand what must be in a man's mind if he doesn't feel seriously that there is a God when he sees the sun rise. It must at times occur to him that there are eternal things, or else he must push his face into the dirt like a sow. For it's incredible that they [the planets] be observed to move without inquiring whether there isn't somebody who moves them.

--Martin Luther

God clears the underbrush ahead and guides us down special paths beaten just for us through thickets of time and uncertainty.

--Leslie Williams

The shepherd isn't always out in front, leading his sheep. . . . In the lengthening twilight, when the sheep must pass through the darkest shadows in the deepest wadis, the shepherd drops back and walk with them.

--Ray Vander Laan

Most of the verses written about praise in God's Word were voiced by people faced with crushing heartaches, injustice, treachery, slander, and scores of other difficult situations.

--Joni Eareckson Tada

Consider the beauty and fragrance of the flowers, the exquisite nature of the butterfly, the stateliness of the horse, the cuddliness of the little puppy. Look up at the stars in their courses and at the sun sending forth its life-giving rays. In all the works of nature let your mind dwell upon the glorious wisdom of God.

--Jerry Bridges

Through affliction He teaches us many precious lessons that otherwise we would never learn. By affliction He shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, and makes us long for heaven.

--J. C. Ryle

Character is not built by battling and excitement alone. The harvest is not ripened by the thunderous forces of nature, but by the secret silent invisible forces. So the best qualities of our spiritual lives are matured by quietness, silence and commonplace.

--A. P. Gouthey

At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky

And flinging the clouds and the towers by,

Is a place of central calm;

So here in the roar of mortal things,

I have a place where my spirit sings,

In the hollow of God's plan.

--Edwin Markham

There may be no trumpet sound or loud applause when we make a right decision, just a calm sense of resolution and peace.

--Gloria Gaither

The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack.

--Keith Miller

Living is learning the meaning of words. That does not mean the long ten syllable words we have to look up in the dictionary. The really great words to master are short ones -- work, love, hope, joy, pain, home, child, life, death.

--Halford E. Luccock

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

We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God, because they must seem so small to him who sitteth on the circle of the earth. But if they are large enough to vex and endanger our welfare, they are large enough to touch his heart of love.

--R. A. Torrey

Adversity is always unexpected and unwelcomed. It is an intruder and a thief, and yet in the hands of God, adversity becomes the means through which His supernatural power is demonstrated.

--Charles Stanley

Let us be contented with what has happened to us and thankful for all we have been spared. Let us accept the natural order in which we move. Let us reconcile ourselves to the mysterious rhythm of our destinies, such as they must be in this world of space and time. Let us treasure our joys but not bewail our sorrows. The glory of light cannot exist without its shadows. Life is a whole, and good and ill must be accepted together.

--Winston Churchill

God has a time for everything, a perfect schedule. He is never too soon, never too late. The when of His will is as important as the what and the how.

--Richard C. Halverson

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

--Harriet Beecher Stowe

Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.

--Barbara Johnson

We have a God who says He will be our God and our Guide to the end -- not

just halfway through -- but to the end.

--Edith Schaeffer

If I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.

--Oswald Chambers

When we come to the end of all valleys we'll understand that every path has been selected, out of all possible options, for our ultimate good.

--David Roper

The stars are God's fingerprints. The sun is a mere smidgen of his radiance. The moon is to remind us that he doesn't sleep at night. The vastness of space proclaims the infinity of his wisdom, while the sand pebble indicates his thoroughness with the puniest details. The lion hints at his fearlessness, the bear at his power, the hawk at his keen insight. And yet, those possess only a tidbit of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. Every tree points toward heaven; every bird has a song to sing; even every moment of wind goes in some direction. There is nothing chaotic about our beautiful designed world. All creation has a message to tell. It says, "Listen, there is a God. There is a God!"

--Brent D. Earles

The God of the Bible is not weak; He is strong. He is all-mighty. Nothing happens without His permission or apart from His purposes -- even evil. Nothing disturbs or puzzles Him. His purposes are always accomplished. Therefore those who know Him rightly act with boldness, assured that God is with them to accomplish His own desirable purposes in their lives.

--James Montgomery Boice

One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.

--Jerry Bridges