Peace & Comfort in Trials
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. – Helen Keller
“Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them. He proportions the frequency and weight of them—to what our case requires. Let us trust in His skill—and thank Him for His prescription!” ~ John Newton
Afflictions abase the loveliness of the world, without that, might entice us; it abates the lustiness of the flesh within, which might else ensnare us! And it abates the spirit in its quarrel against the flesh and the world; by all which it proves a mighty advantage unto us.” ~ Thomas Brooks – A mute Christian under the smarting rod
“The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them.” ~Thomas Watson
“As we live before the face of God each day with real reasons for real anxiety, we can rest assured that His sovereignty (not ours), His control (not ours), His faithfulness (not ours) – is our only real hope in this sad world. For that which He created He sustains, that which He authors He perfects, and that which He begins He completes.” – RC Sproul
“If I really believe that “all things” are for God’s glory and by His invincible and perfect will, then I shall receive submissively, yea, thankfully, whatsoever He ordains and sends me.” ~A. W. Pink
“An humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses as under blessings and mercies.”
“An humble soul is quick-sighted: he sees the rod in Father’s hand; he sees honey upon the top of every twig, and so can bless God; he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand; he knows that God’s house of correction is a school of instruction; and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back. An humble soul knows that the design of God in all is his instruction, his reformation, and his salvation.”
“Afflictions to humble souls are the Lord’s plough, the Lord’s harrow, the Lord’s flail, the Lord’s drawing plaster, the Lord’s pruning knife, the Lord’s potion, the Lord’s soap; and therefore they can sit down and bless the Lord, and kiss the rod.” ~ Thomas Brooks – The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ
“Men and devils are but God’s apothecaries, they make not our physic, but give what God prescribes… In a saint’s cup the poison of the affliction is corrected, not so in the wicked’s; and therefore what is medicine to the one is ruin to the other.” ~William Gurnal - The Christian In Complete Armour, Vol I, Part Second, Direction II – Second General Part
“Most of the great truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them. No man is competent to judge in matters of the kingdom, until first he has been tried; since there are many things to be learned in the depths which we can never know in the heights. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
Comfort is the way of Satan. When we are comfortable, so is he.
Afflictions add to the saints’ glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints’ cross is, the heavier will be their crown.” ~ THOMAS WATSON
If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble. The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. ~ Thomas Watson
Be convinced that heaven is the only treasure and happiness, and labour to know what a treasure and happiness it is. If you do not believe it to be the chief good, you will never set your heart upon it… If Eve once supposes she sees more worth in the forbidden fruit than in the love and enjoyment of God, no wonder if it have more of her heart than God. If your judgment once prefer the delights of the flesh before the delights of the presence of God, it is impossible that your hearts should be in heaven. As it is in ignorance of the emptiness of things below that makes men so over-value them, so it is ignorance of the high delights above which is the cause that men so little value and mind them.
—Richard Baxter, “The Saints Everlasting Rest.”
God takes us down strange and hard paths so that we learn not to trust ourselves and to trust in Him and His guidance of our lives. ~ Don P
“There is nothing which so certifies the genuineness of a man’s faith as his patience and his patient endurance, his keeping on steadily in spite of everything.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal. No sound, whole soul shall ever enter into heaven. Think when in temptation, Christ was tempted for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces. ~ Thomas Brooks – Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax
“God takes away the world that the heart may cleave more to him in sincerity.” ~ Thomas Watson
How can we not be content and at peace when we know and trust that God already knows the future, how each circumstance will turn out? And he has promised all things work for good. And do we really think that we can make something happen or prevent it anyway? We work but all results come from Him. So why fret? Just do what we are called to do each day and leave the rest to Him. It will all work out as He desires it to for our growth and sanctification.
Though the cutting us away from our flesh and lusts for this world and its pleasures may not feel good, they are making us more peaceable and happy and free from the constant burden of indwelling sin. We are being cut free from our flesh being tangled and caught in this world so we can end the real stress and pain. So cry out when you feel the pain of your flesh being cut free from the tangles of sin and satan that holds it back, but rejoice and be at peace knowing you are becoming truly free.
How foolish it would be to be sad and depressed as your rescuers cut you out of a net that was dragging you to death.
The Father is rescuing you from your body of death.
Be still and know that He is God. Selah.
If it were not for pain or fearful circumstances how could God teach you to be strong and courageous and trust Him? So it is His blessing to you that He allows these circumstances so He can kill the coward in you and bring courage and peace to you. ~ Don P
You may never know that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. – Corrie Ten Boom
Fierce drives the storm, but wind and waves
Within His hand are held,
And trusting His omnipotence
My fears are sweetly quelled. — Brown
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:15
Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified, prepare the soul for glory. ~Richard Sibbes
This is a life of faith, for God will try the truth of our faith, so that the world may see that God has such servants as will depend upon His bare word. ~ Richard Sibbes
When we’re helping other people, we’re nourishing our soul. Depression or unhappiness means we’ve got the wrong goal. We have forgotten that peace of mind is our only goal.
By concentrating on helping another person, we renew contact with our soul and with God.
We can feel peaceful again. A sense of joy surrounds us and all the frustration, agitation, and self-anger disappears.
Peace of mind has nothing to do with the external world; it has only to do with
our connection with God. Love really is the answer. We’re here only to teach love.
When we’re doing that, our souls are singing and dancing. When we remind ourselves
that we are spiritual beings, that life and love are the flame eternal, that’s when our soul is nourished. ~ Gerald Jampolsky
God is right here, wherever you are. God is within you and everywhere around you. God is omnipresent and omniscient. You never have to beg or bargain with God for anything. The Holy Spirit knows your needs even before you do. And it is God’s very nature to fulfill your needs, at the time and in the manner that is best for you.
There are many lessons we must learn in our lifetime,
but none is more essential to our happiness than this one. We never have
to entreat God to be more kind or benevolent. God is kindness and benevolence.
The very substance of God is love–the love that created you and me.
It is the love within the little acorn that becomes the great oak tree,
the love that protects the lilies of the field. God is the love that is
breathing for you, the love that is beating your heart.
Susan L. Taylor”
“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.”- J. I. Packer
The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies’ strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours. Let us therefore be ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory? None is here overcome but he that will not fight. Therefore, when any base fainting seizes on us, let us lay the blame where it ought to be laid.
Discouragement rising from unbelief and the ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit of faintheartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God’s good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what we may look for from heaven. ~ Richard Sibbes -Through Conflict to Victory
“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf”.… 1 Peter 4:16
“When [the saints] perform actions to God, then the soul says: ‘Oh! that I could do what pleases God!’
When they come to suffer any cross: ‘Oh, that what God does might please me!’
I labour to do what pleases God, and I labour that what God does shall please me: here is a Christian indeed, who shall endeavour both these.
It is but one side of a Christian to endeavour to do what pleases God; you must as well endeavour to be pleased with what God does, and so you will come to be a complete Christian when you can do both, and that is the first thing in the excellence of this grace of contentment.” ~ Jeremiah Burroughs “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment”
Look inside – be depressed
Look around – be distressed
Look to Jesus- be at rest!! ~Unknown
“Make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me.” Psalm 25:4-5 There are two ways of learning of Divine things. The one is to acquire a letter knowledge of them from the Bible, the other is to be given an actual experience of them in the soul, under the Spirit’s teaching.
Many suppose that by spending a few minutes in a concordance, they can discover what humility is; that by studying certain passages of Scriptures, they may obtain an increase of faith; or that by reading and re-reading a certain chapter, they may secure more love.
But that is not the way those graces are experimentally developed. Humility is learned by a daily smarting under the plague of the heart, and having its innumerable abominations exposed to our view. Repentance is learned by feeling the load of guilt, and the heavy burden of conscious defilement, bowing down the soul. Faith is learned by increasing discoveries of unbelief and infidelity. Love is learned by a personal sense of the undeserved goodness of God to the vilest of the vile. Patience cannot be learned from books–it is acquired in the furnace of affliction! It is thus with all the spiritual graces of the Christian.
Ah, my reader, we beg the Lord to teach us–but the fact is, that we do not like His method of teaching us! Fiery trials, storms of afflictions, the dashing of our carnal hopes–are indeed painful to flesh and blood; yet it is by them that the heart is purified.
We say that we wish to live to God’s glory–but fail to remember that we can do so only as SELF is denied and the Cross be taken up. God’s ways of teaching His children are, like all His ways, entirely different from ours! ~ Arthur Pink, “Experimental Preaching“
“I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable…. Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister’s library.” ~ Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
The consideration of God’s order, which he uses about the means, which are instruments of his providence, may well strengthen every Christian in all his necessities. When we are in any special need our hearts are to be much cumbered because we see not God to afford us those means, which we esteem to be helpful to us in our need: but could we once thoroughly consider this order of God about the means, we should win great rest unto our minds thereby. Mark it well, I pray you, had we been at the first creation of things, we should have been also much cumbered about many of them, fearing they would have well fell out, considering the outward conveyance which God used therein, but we see how gloriously the Lord perfected all the work: so likewise if we could now let the Lord alone and commit our ways only unto him, he would certainly bring it to pass, Psalm 37:5, and cause all things at the last to turn to the best unto us, Rom 8:28, even as he hath made it known in many occurrences happening in the life of his children. Know we not that in the thing which most afflicted Jacob, namely, the loss of his son Joseph, was wound up his chief blessing (though he knew it not) as the issue manifested? Therefore, our duty is always, as anything falls out contrary to our minds, thus to think: God is wonderful in his ways, there may any unexpected blessing lie hid herein; and thereupon should we be moved to possess our souls in patience, till it pleaseth him to bring all things to light, that serve for our comfort. And here we may well say that, to our souls of God, which Naomi said of Boaz to Ruth: Still still, O my soul, till thou know how the matter will fall, for the Lord will not rest till he hath brought it to an end. [Ruth 3:18] —William Teelinck “The Resting Place of the Mind”
Don P commenting on above Tellinck Quote: To one who has been schooled by God, through suffering or otherwise, to have gained this experience, they can feel the depths of spiritual life this man breathes.
This is no bare recitation of intellectual fact but the expression of a heart deeply instructed by experience through affliction or suffering in this world and the discipline of our Father.
I shared this quote with my 86 yr old aging mom who feels she has long been in Baca’s Vale and is so wanting the Lord to take her home and out of the painful affliction of this decaying world. Her mood immediately leaped to joy and laughter as the Spirit confirmed His word to her. What a joy it was for me to be used, through the quote of this ancient saint, who long ago slept with our fathers, to bring comfort to such a deserving servant as my mom who has wandered long through the desert and awaits the next and final trial of crossing the floods of Jordan for our promised land. As we see in the Jews, our own inability to purify even that promise, I praise God that He has told us that He has removed all sin and made our new home perfect.
Rev 21:4 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ”Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” NKJV
The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger. ~ Elisabeth Elliot
It is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of Heaven. ~ Apostle Paul
Christian! Your present afflictions are not great—if compared with the afflictions and torments of many of the damned, who when they were it this world, never sinned at so high a rate as you have done! There are many now in hell, who never sinned against such clear light as you have done, nor against such special love as you have done, nor against such precious mercies as you have done! Certainly there are many now a-roaring in everlasting burnings—who never sinned as you have done!
What are your present afflictions and troubles—compared to the torments of the damned, whose torments are . . . without intermission, without mitigation, numberless, bottomless, remediless, and endless!
Who have . . . weeping served for the first course, and gnashing of teeth for the second course, and the gnawing worm for the third course, and intolerable pain for the fourth course!
Yet the pain of the body is least part of pain. The very soul of sorrow and pain—is the soul’s sorrow and pain! The everlasting alienation and separation from God is served for the fifth course!
Ah, Christian! how can you seriously think on these things and not lay your hand upon your mouth—even when you are under the greatest temporal sufferings? Your sins have been far greater than many of those who are now in hell, and your great afflictions are but a flea-bite compared to theirs! Therefore hush your murmuring, and be silent before the Lord! ~ Thomas Brooks – “The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod”
Romans 8:18″I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us!”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18″For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all!”
“It is happy for us if we have suffered enough to make us desire a better country, that is a heavenly one; but surely all the painful experiences we have hitherto met with have not been more than sufficient to bring us into this waiting posture.“ ~ John Newton.
“When we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world. ” ~ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ ” ~ C. S. Lewis
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. ~ C. S. Lewis
For those who ask, Why am I suffering and having this affliction. Click Here to listen to a 3 Minute audio of Thomas Brooks. It explains my life, and it will cure you from ever asking again.
“A higher degree of personal piety, will promote a higher degree of personal happiness.
“Sin and sorrow are bound together by adamantine chains.” Hence man increases in misery–as he increases in sin. It is upon this principle that the devil is the most miserable being in the universe–because he is the most depraved.
So, on the other hand, there is an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness. God is the most happy being in the universe–because He is the most holy. And the happiness of His people is just in proportion as they resemble Him in righteousness and true holiness.
Heaven is a world of supreme happiness, because it is a world of supreme holiness.
Hell is a world of supreme misery, because sin is there fully developed.
God has so ordered it, that our comfort and happiness in this world can only be found in a pious life. For the last six thousand years mankind have been happiness hunters. In all ages and lands the eager query has been, “Who will show us any good?” But every device has been a failure! The recorded and unrecorded experience of all has been, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit!” We can no more expect to find happiness in the pursuits and objects of this world–than we may expect to find luscious grapes growing at the icy North Pole.
But in the likeness and service of Christ, is found a happiness which is pure, elevating, perennial, inexhaustible–a happiness that will go with us in all conditions, all lands, and all worlds!
The great cause of all the sadness and depression in the followers of Christ, is the small degree of their piety. The only reason why they are disconsolate, is because they “follow the Lord afar off.” One single uncrucified, unbemoaned sin–will not only destroy all pious enjoyment–but open the soul to the devil, with his whole black train of guilt and misery. It matters not what this sin is. Any one sin habitually indulged in, whether it is pride, malice, backbiting, covetousness, filling the mind with unholy images, or murmuring under adverse providences–will exclude from the soul all pious enjoyment.
After all, the great secret of being happy, is to be holy. He who grows in practical piety has opened a thousand sources of true bliss.
The “golden fruit of happiness” grows only on the “tree of holiness”. If happiness is sought in any other way than by being holy–it is sought in vain.” ~ Cornelius Tyree, “The Moral Power of a Pious Life“
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace. —Lemmela
“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us’.” – Anthony the Great (251-356 AD)
When God doesn’t want me to do something, I definitely know it. When he wants me to do something, even if it means going outside my comfort zone, I know that too. I feel pushed in the direction I need to go… I try to stand up for my faith at school… It can be discouraging, but it can also be rewarding… I will die for my God. I will die for my faith. It’s the least I can do for Christ dying for me. ~ Cassie Rene Bernall
(A 17-year-old from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, USA who died April 20, 1999)
Excellent Wisdom Quotes Continued – Click Here
Quotes & Studies on Predestination
Quotes on Reproof, Conviction and Hatred of Sin
Excerpts on How to Mortify Sin Out of Your Life
