Persevering Quotes Part VII

Persevering Quotes from the Christian World at Large part VII
Affliction

Please note that these are a compilation from various internet sources

I need to thank the following sites
http://www.thegracetabernacle.org/quotes/gracequotes.html
http://www.spurgeongems.org/iquotes.htm

Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us. A.W. Pink

The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them in the wrong light; when we see them in the hand of God, Who dispenses them; when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us; our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even a matter of consolation. Brother Lawrence

Afflictions tend to wean us from the world - and to fix our affections on things above. John Angell James The Widow Directed to the Widow's God, 1841.

Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, and what I might have got by them. Jonathan Edwards Resolution Number 67.

HOPE

Hope in God's promises, therefore, is not a wishful longing but a faith-filled confidence for the future. It is simply impossible to trust one of God's promises and not anticipate its coming true. To know God is to trust him. And to trust God is to trust his promises. And to trust God's promises is to be sure of their fulfillment. This assurance concerning the future, anchored in God's promises, is what the Bible calls "hope." Scott Hafemann The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 109.

In the midst of an ever-changing world, the good news is that the life of faith is anchored by the power, provisions, and promises of God. Circumstances may change, but the future is as sure as the character of God himself. No matter what happens, those who trust in God hope in his word. Scott Hafemann The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 187.

The word hope I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith. John Calvin

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called “the rejoicing of hope” (Hebrews 3:6). William Gurnall A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 144.

Your hope as a believer is in the Lord. He causes all things in your life (including problems and trials) to work together for good as you continually respond in love (demonstrated through obedience) to Him. Out of the hope that God provides, your faith and love can be biblically expressed in any situation. Understanding and responding biblically to problems glorifies God while He further conforms you to the image of Jesus Christ. Biblical Counseling Foundation Self-Confrontation Manuel, Lesson 6, Page 2, Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.

The hope that God has provided for you is not merely a wish. Neither is it dependent on other people, possessions, or circumstances for its validity. Instead, biblical hope is an application of your faith that supplies a confident expectation in God’s fulfillment of His promises. Coupled with faith and love, hope is part of the abiding characteristics in a believer’s life. Biblical Counseling Foundation Self-Confrontation Manuel, Lesson 6, Page 6, Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.

Christian hope, biblical hope is "a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future." And from that definition we can see three things that must be true about something if it indeed is to be the object of biblical hope. (1) What we hope for must be something good. (2) What we hope for must be in the future and (3) what we hope for must be certain, not doubtful, so that our expectation of its coming to pass may be confident, not wavering. Steve Roy Sermon, Our Hope, Eternal Life, June 29, 1986, www.DesiringGod.org, Used by Permission.

Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope. C.H. Spurgeon

Every Christian who struggles with depression struggles to keep their hope clear. There is nothing wrong with the object of their hope – Jesus Christ is not defective in any way whatsoever. But the view from the struggling Christian's heart of their objective hope could be obscured by disease and pain, the pressures of life, and by Satanic fiery darts shot against them… All discouragement and depression is related to the obscuring of our hope, and we need to get those clouds out of the way and fight like crazy to see clearly how precious Christ is. John Piper Can Christian be Depressed? Ask Pastor John, December 19, 2007, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.

Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made. R.C. Sproul The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 40.

Hopelessness in not a physical problem; it is spiritual. It has lost sight of God’s kingdom purposes that use even suffering to accomplish His ends. Edward Welch The Heart of Depression, Tabletalk, March 2008, Used by Permission.