“God uses adversity to loosen our grip on those things that are not true fruit. A severe illness or the death of someone dear to us, the loss of material substance or the tarnishing of our reputation, the turning aside of friends or the dashing of our cherished dreams on the rocks of failure, cause us to think about what is really important in life. Position or possessions or even reputation no longer seem so important. We begin to relinquish our desires and expectations - even good ones - to the sovereign will of God. We come more and more to depend on God and to desire only that which will count for eternity. God is pruning us so that we will be more fruitful.”

“The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God…All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch His children unless He permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of every member of His redeemed family.”

“For many years in my own pilgrimage of seeking to come to a place of trusting God at all times…I was a prisoner to my feelings. I mistakenly thought I could not trust God unless I felt like trusting Him (which I almost never did in times of adversity). Now I am learning that trusting God is first of all a matter of the will and is not dependent on my feelings. I choose to trust God, and my feelings eventually follow…If we are to trust God, we must choose to believe His truth. We must say, “I will trust You though I do not feel like doing so.”

“When we sin we are more vexed at the lowering of our self-esteem than we are grieved at God’s dishonor. We are surprised and irritated at our own lack of self-control in subjecting ourselves to unworthy habits…the first cause of this is self-love, which is unable to stand the disappointment of not seeing ourselves in time of trial come out beautiful, erect, and admirable.”

“God in His love always wills what is best for us, in His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.”

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All our failures may be ultimately traced to a defect of faith…The life of faith, therefore, is the life of the Minister’s work and the spring of his success…

The main difficulty, therefore, is not in our work, but in ourselves; in the conflict with our own unbelief…Difficulties heaped upon difficulties can never rise to the level of the promise of God…

It is faith that enlivens our work with perpetual cheerfulness. It commits every part of it to God, in the hope, that even mistakes shall be overruled for his glory; and thus relieves us from an oppressive anxiety, often attendant upon a deep sense of our responsibility. The shortest way to peace will be found in casting ourselves upon God for daily pardon of deficiencies and supplies of grace, without looking too eagerly for present fruit. Hence our course of effort is unvarying, but more tranquil…Unbelief looks at the difficulty. Faith regards the promise. Unbelief therefore makes our work a service of bondage. Faith realizes it as a “labour of love.” Unbelief drags on in sullen despondency. Faith makes the patience, with which it is content to wait for succes, “the patience of hope”. As every difficulty…is the fruit of unbelief; so will they all ultimately be overcome by the perseverance of faith.