God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.
How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then, let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!'
If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.
In conclusion, the submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar. The many other things we 'give,' brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God's will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give!
Long ago when a child lay in a manger, a special star appeared. It didn't just show up that evening. It had to have been placed in its orbit centuries before in a trajectory that would make it appear at that special moment of time to announce the birth of a special child. Just as there is divine design in the universe, so each of us has been placed in our own orbits in this life to love, to serve, to help light the world.
It is our job to lift others up, not to size them up.
The soul is like a violin string: it makes music only when it is stretched.
I fear that, as conditions worsen, many will react to the failures of too much government by calling for even more government. Then there will be more and more lifeboats launched because fewer and fewer citizens know how to swim. Unlike some pendulums, political pendulums to not swing back automatically; they must be pushed. History is full of instances when people have waited in vain for pendulums to swing back.
Satan delights to have us put ourselves down. Self-contempt is of Satan. There is no such thing in heaven.
The more seriously we work on our own imperfections, the less we are judgemental of the imperfections of others.
Trials and tribulations tend to squeeze the artificiality out of us, leaving the essence of what we really are and clarifying what we really yearn for.
The more quickly we loosen our grip on the things of the world the more firmly we can take hold of the things of eternity.
If we entertain temptations, soon they begin entertaining us!
During our mortal schooling in submissiveness, we will see the visible crosses that some carry, but other crosses will go unseen. A few individuals may appear to have no trials at all, which, if it were so, would be a trial in itself. Indeed, if, as do trees, our souls had rings to measure the years of greatest personal growth, the wide rings would likely reflect the years of greatest moisture-but from tears, not rainfall.
Crowds cannot make right what God has declared to be wrong.
Time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither, of course, but whereas the fish is at home in water, we are clearly not at home in time--because we belong to eternity.
A society which permits anything will eventually lose everything.
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.
We cannot lead or draw others to Christ unless we stand closer to Him than they do.
Men's and nations' finest hour consist of those moments when extraordinary challenge is met by extraordinary response. Hence in those darkest hours, we must light our individual candles rather than vying with others to call attention to the enveloping darkness. Our indignation about injustice should lead to illumination, for if it does not, we are only adding to the despair-and the moment of gravest danger is when there is so little light that darkness seems normal!
Sometimes the best people... have the worst experiences... because they are ready to learn
It is extremely important for you to believe in yourselves, not only for what you are now, but for what you have the power to become.
We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.
In Gospel grammar, death is not an exclamation point, merely a comma.
For the faithful, our finest hours are sometimes during or just following our darkest hours.
