november99

How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. . . .For Him time does not pass, it remains. . . . God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. To know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.

--A. W. Tozer

Let us be like a bird for a moment perched

On a frail branch when he sings;

Though he feels it bend, yet he sings his song,

Knowing that he has wings.

--Victor Hugo

Even in the winter, even in the midst of the storm, the sun is still there. Somewhere, up above the clouds, it still shines and warms and pulls at the life buried deep inside the brown branches and frozen earth. The sun is there! Spring will come.

--Gloria Gaither

Down through the centuries in times of trouble and trial God has brought courage to the hearts of those who love Him. The Bible is filled with assurances of God's help and comfort in every kind of trouble which might cause fears to arise in the human heart. You can look ahead with promise, hope, and joy.

--Billy Graham

What we do in the crisis always depends on whether we see the difficulties in the light of God, or God in the shadow of the difficulties.

--G. Campbell Morgan

It is a fact of Christian experience that life is a series of troughs and peaks. In his efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, God relies on the troughs more than the peaks. And some of his special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.

--Peter Marshall

A saint's life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see; He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, "I cannot stand any more." But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.

--Oswald Chambers

If you want a wonderful experience, take your New Testament and use a concordance to look up the two little words, "but God." See how many times human resources have been brought to an utter end; despair has gripped the heart and pessimism and gloom has settled upon a people; and there is nothing that can be done. Then see how the Spirit of God writes in luminous letters, "but God," and the whole situation changes into victory.

--Ray C. Stedman

When I am sore beset, I seek some quiet place,

Some lonely room or barren windswept hill,

And there in silence wait apart until

I see again the smile upon God's face;

Until His presence floods me like the dawn,

And I can hear His whispered, "Peace, be still,"

And know the strength to do His will.

I turn to take my load and find it gone.

--Antoinette Goetschius

We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person -- the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.

--Oswald Chambers

There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot from that situation, create something that is surpassingly good. He did it at the creation. He did it at the cross. He is doing it today.

--Handley C. G. Moule

If my life is surrendered to God, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine!

--Elisabeth Elliot

God keeps giving Himself as long as we bring that into which He can pour Himself. And when we stop bringing, He stops giving.

--Alexander Maclaren

Never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it.

--C.S. Lewis

I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.

--John Henry Newman

When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from

God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to

recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we

are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to

get life's dimensions adjusted again.

--Warren W. Wiersbe

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success quality for usefulness and happiness. The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude of the voyager. The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and security.

--Unknown

"Courage" is the strength to face pain, act under pressure, and maintain one's values in the face of opposition. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along."

--Eleanor Roosevelt

(Note: some may dispute whether Eleanor Roosevelt should be included in such a collection of quotations as this. However, regardless of any beliefs or lifestyles, the truth of what she said remains, and it does indeed reflect on the Christian experience.)

God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process --that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea.

--Oswald Chambers

Christ said we could move mountains if we had faith. But He didn't say we wouldn't need a shovel.

--Joyce Vollmer Brown

There is always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it. Right now, I'm sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt.

--Barbara Johnson

If you're not doing something with your life, it doesn't mattter how long it is.

--Peace Corps Commercial

You must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. God will waste nothing.

--Phillips Brooks

Faith in God will not get for you everything you want, but it will get for you what God wants you to have. The unbeliever does not need what he wants; the Christian should want only what he needs.

--Vance Havner

Seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving and gives a rest of heart.

--Hannah Whitall Smith

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart... will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessing.

--Henry Ward Beecher

The Creator loves you very much since He gives you so many good things. Therefore, be careful not to be ungrateful, but strive always to praise God.

--St. Francis of Assisi

Taken separately, the experiences of life can work harm and not good. Taken

together, they make a pattern of blessing and strength the like of which the world does not know.

--V. Raymond Brown

Hidden in the hollow

Of His blessed hand,

Never foe can follow,

Never traitor stand;

Not a surge of worry,

Not a shade of care,

Not a blast of hurry

Touch the Spirit there.

--Frances R. Havergal

Courage is when you do what you have to do though people don't think you can. Courage is when you think you can't do something, but you do it. Courage is when you are down and out and all the odds are against you, and you come out on top; it's when you stare your worst fear or toughest obstacle in the face and beat it. Courage is when you take on the impossible or fight an unwinnable fight. That's what courage is.

--Adam McCord, a teenager paralyzed in an automobile accident