Quotes
- Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. - C. H. Spurgeon, quoted in Streams in the Desert, quoted in Reflections, Christianity Today, June 16, 1997, p. 45
- Looking back, [my wife] Jan and I have learned that the wilderness is part of the landscape of faith, and every bit as essential as the mountaintop. On the mountaintop we are overwhelmed by God’s presence. In the wilderness we are overwhelmed by his absence. Both places should bring us to our knees; the one, in utter awe; the other, in utter dependence. - Dave Dravecky in When You Can’t Come Back
- If you treat everybody like they’re hurting, you will be treating the vast majority of them in the proper way. - Zig Ziglar
- The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. - Chinese Proverb, New Man, March/April 1997, p. 18
- 2/5’s of self-identified Christians deny the link between pain/suffering and becoming a better person. Community Impact Seminar, Focus on the Family
- Untold suffering seldom is. - Franklin P. Jones in The Saturday Evening Post
- We have the mistaken notion that suffering should be temporary, understandable, and readily applicable to life. - Neal Anderson
- A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain. - Mildred Witte Struven, in Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, p. 6
- And there I’ll sing, with millions more, this song—He never fails; He never fails. - J. S. Baxter, in Explore The Book
- At the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the 4th century A.D., of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith. - Vance Havner
- Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness. - Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990
- When I hear my friends say they hope their children don’t have to experience the hardships they went through—I don’t agree. Those hardships made us what we are. you can be disadvantaged in many ways, and one way may be not having had to struggle. - William M. Batten, Fortune
- Once when Bob Hope received a major award he responded, “I don’t deserve this, but then I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.”
- Suffering is the heritage of the bad, of the penitent, and of the Son of God. Each one ends in the cross. The bad thief is crucified, the penitent thief is crucified, and the Son of God is crucified. By these signs we know the widespread heritage of suffering. - Oswald Chambers in Christian Discipline.
- If we consider the greatness and the glory of the life we shall have when we have risen from the dead, it would not be difficult at all for us to bear the concerns of this world. If I believe the Word, I shall on the Last Day, after the sentence has been pronounced, not only gladly have suffered ordinary temptations, insults, and imprisonment, but I shall also say: “O, that I did not throw myself under the feet of all the godless for the sake of the great glory which I now see revealed and which has come to me through the merit of Christ!” - Martin Luther
- “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. - Helen Keller, quoted by Barbara Rowes, The book of Quotes, Dutton.
- C. Swindoll, Growing Strong, p. 91. Glenn Chambers killed on way to serve at HCJB. Mailed letter home, written on back of advertisement. One word in middle of page, “Why?”
- Someone asked C. S. Lewis, “Why do the righteous suffer?” “Why not?” he replied. “They’re the only ones who can take it.”
- Those who know the path to God, can find it in the dark. - Maclaren
- Suffering teaches us patience. These words were found penned on the wall of a prison cell in Europe: “I believe in love even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.” - Billy Graham, Till Armageddon