Adversity - christiansquoting.org.uk

God and the doctor
We both adore
In time of trouble,
Not before.
Illness cured,
Reverses righted,
God is forgotten,
The doctor slighted.
When the tide of life turns against you
And the current upsets your boat
Don't waste tears on what might have been
Just lie on your back and float.

God may calm the storm around you, but more often He'll calm the storm within you.

Adversity is the diamond dust with which Heaven polishes its jewels.

A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify for usefulness and happiness. The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude or the voyager. The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and security.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

No cloud can overshadow a true Christian, but his faith may discern a rainbow in it.

Some folks treat God like a lawyer. They go to Him, only when they are in trouble.

There is more safety with Christ in the tempest, than without Christ in the calmest waters.

The brook would lose its song if you removed the stones.

"post tenebras lux" - after darkness, light

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

In the day of prosperity, adversity is forgotten, and in the day of adversity, prosperity is not remembered. Sirach 11:25

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it.
The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm. When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God's power to lift us above them.
God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm. Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them.
The Bible says, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles." (Isaiah 40:31)

Sooner or later we will be called upon to trust God as we endure sickness, grief, or disappointment. That's when "we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Sometimes God calms the storm, sometimes He calms the sailor.

Trials are not enemies of faith but are opportunities to prove God's faithfulness.

The diamond can not be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials. -- Chinese Proverb

A man should learn to sail in all winds. Italian Proverb

Many stars cannot be concealed by a small cloud - Maori proverb

The anvil fears no blows.... Romanian Proverb

The hammer shatters glass but forges steel -- Russian Proverb

We live, my dear, in an age of trial. What will be the consequence, I know not. --John Adams, to Abigail Adams, 1774, quoted in _John Adams_ David McCullough

The truth is, if you asked me to choose between winning the Tour de France and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the Tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father. -- Lance Armstrong

God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them. --Aughey

Whenever you fall, pick up something. - Oswald Theodore Avery

I have two planks for a bed, two stools, two cups and a basin. On my broken wall is a small card which says,'God hath chosen the weak things -- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' It is true I have passed through fire.-- Gladys Aylward in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997

There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster. -- Richard Bach, "ONE".

Night brings out stars, as sorrow shows us truths. -- Gamaliel Bailey

Lord, it belongs not to my care,
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.

If life be long I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short--yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that unto God's kingdom comes,
Must enter by this door.

Come, Lord, when grace has made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet,
What will Thy glory be!

Then shall I end my sad complaints,
And weary, sinful days;
And join with the triumphant saints,
To sing Jehovah's praise.

My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

He is not drowning His sheep when He washeth them, nor killing them when He is shearing them. But by this He showeth that they are His own; and the new shorn sheep do most visibly bear His name or mark, when it is almost worn out and scarce discernible on them that have the longest fleece.
Richard Baxter on Affliction

When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars. -- Charles A. Beard

We are always in the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things. -- Beecher (1813-1878)

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. -- Ps. 9:9-10

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. -- Psalm 34:19

For a righteous man will fall seven times, and rise again: but the ungodly shall be without strength in troubles.--Proverbs 24:16{English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton(1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., London, 1851}

Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.-- Isa. 50:10

The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.-- William J.H. Boetcker

Be glad today. Tomorrow may bring tears.
Be brave today. The darkest night will pass.
And golden rays will usher in the dawn.
Who conquers now shall rule the coming years.
Sarah Knowles Bolton

To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation
for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare.

And when this cup You give is filled to brimming
with bitter suffering, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Yet when again in this same world You give us
the joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through,
and our whole life shall then be Yours alone.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - in the concentration camp, shortly before his death.

I 've learned to hold everything loosely because it hurts when God pries my fingers from it. -- CORRIE TEN BOOM

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. -Anne Bradstreet

So long as man has encouragement elsewhere, he does not encourage himself in the Lord his God...Now when God sees that his children fall in love more with the nurse than himself, then he removes the nurse, and causes their peace to be suspended and interrupted. -- William Bridge

The flowers smell sweetest after a shower;
vines bear the better for bleeding;
the walnut-tree is most fruitful when most beaten;
saints spring and thrive most internally,
when they are most externally afflicted.
Afflictions are the mother of virtue.
Manasseh's chain was more profitable to him than his crown.
All of the stones that came about Stephen's ears
did but knock him closer to Christ, the corner-stone.
THOMAS BROOKS

God's house of correction is His school of instruction.-Thomas Brooks

Let us learn like Christians to kiss the rod, and love it.-John Bunyan

In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God. John Bunyan

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France P. 453.

Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father's will thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he follows this plan with all his children. John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]

It is profitable for the pious to be unsettled on earth, lest, by setting their minds on a commodious and quiet habitation, they should lose the inheritance of heaven. -- Calvin on Gen 20:1

Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness. -- John Calvin

No pressure, no diamonds. - Mary Case

If a sheep stray from the flock, the shepherd sets his dog after it, not to devour it, but to bring it in again; even so our Heavenly Shepherd. -Daniel Cawdray

God denies a Christian nothing, but with a design to give him something better. -- Richard Cecil

We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us, han under the staff that comforts us. -Stephen Charnock

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) "The Hammer of God."

At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.
Winston Churchill to his wife, 26 July 1945; she had suggested his election defeat might be a blessing in disguise.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it. - Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials--Cicero

It is only by hammer blows that God manages to humble us, no matter how good our native disposition. -- Anthony Mary Claret

Trials should not surprise us, or cause us to doubt God's faithfulness. Rather, we should actually be glad for them. God sends trials to strengthen our trust in him so that our faith will not fail. Our trials keep us trusting; they burn away our self confidence and drive us to our Saviour.
Edmund Clowney, Commentary on 1 Peter.

That was no discouragement to me; for when the storm blew hardest, the smiles of my Lord were at the sweetest. It is a matter of rejoicing unto me to think how my Lord hath passed by many a tall cedar, and hath laid His love upon a poor bramble bush, the like of me. --John Cochran, shoemaker, hanged 1683

I have looked back on Watergate and thank God for it. Through that crucible I came to know Christ personally and discovered that in the darkest moments of my life he was working to produce what I would later see as the greatest blessings of my life.
Charles Colson letter to Jonathan Aitken quoted in, Pride and Perjury, Jonathan en, 2000.

Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquifies the gold, hardens the clay. --Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)

How naturally does affliction make us Christians! -William Cowper, letter, 4 July 1765

Through Christ's satisfaction for sin, the very nature of affliction is changed with regard to believers. As death, which was, at first, the wages of sin, is now become a bed of rest (Is. 57:2); so afflictions are not the rod of God's anger, but the gentle (medicine) of a tender father. Tobias Crisp

God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before. -- Otto Dibelius

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever... -Isak Dinesen

The Lord does not measure out our afflictions according to our faults, but according to our strength, and looks not at what we have deserved, but what we are able to bear. -George Downame

For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.... Alfred Edersheim

The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.-
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)_The Christian Pilgrim_

The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness. --Havelock Ellis, Engl. 1859 -- 1939

God dwells as glorious in a saint when he is in the dark, as when he is in light, for darkness is His secret place, and His pavilion round about Him are dark waters. - WILLIAM ERBERRY

When God intends to fill a soul, he first makes it empty. When he intends to enrich a soul, he first makes it poor. When he intends to exalt a soul, he first makes it sensible to its own miseries, wants, and nothingness. -- John Flavel on "Humility"

Man's extremity is God's opportunity.-- John Flavel

And is it well done, then, to repine and droop because your Father consults more the advantage of your souls than the pleasing of your humors? Because He will bring you a nearer way to heaven than you are willing to go? Is this a due requital of His love, who is pleased so much to concern Himself for your welfare? This is more than He will do for thousands in the world, upon whom He will not lay a rod or send an affliction for their good (Hosea 4:17; Matthew 15:14). But alas! We judge by sense, and reckon things good or evil according to what we, for the present, can taste and feel in them. - JOHN FLAVEL

Crosses release us from this world and by doing so bind us to God. -- Charles de Foucauld

Stop thinking about your difficulties, whatever they are, and start thinking about God instead.--- Emmet Fox

I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains. -Anne Frank

What is to give light must endure burning. - Viktor Emil Frankl, 1905 - 1997

If afflictions refine some, they consume others. --Thomas Fuller, M.D. (1654-1734) _Gnomologia_ [1732]

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) In "The Speaker's Electronic Reference Collection," AApex Software, 1994.

The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. - Edward Gibbon

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. -- Arthur Golden

The hues of bliss more brightly glow, Chastised by sabler tints of woe. --- Thomas Gray, Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 45.

In religion, we are not asked to make up our minds, we are asked to make up our lives... We may refuse to make up our minds, but our lives get made up, one way or the other... Whatever we believe with our minds, our lives are committed either to God's way or to the God-denying way, and what matters in religion is the act of commitment.... A. Leonard Griffith (1920- ), Barriers to Christian Belief [1962]

God's wounds cure, sin's kisses kill. -- WILLIAM GURNALL

God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures. God loves purity so well He had rather see a hole than a spot in His child's garments.-- William Gurnall

The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God. WILLIAM GURNALL

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?' -Sydney Harris

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.--Paul Harvey

Those that go gold into the furnace will come out no worse.-- MATTHEW HENRY

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions. -- Matthew Henry (1662-1714)

Storms make oaks take deeper root--George Herbert (1593-1633)

The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.-- Napoleon Hill, 1883-1970

To reach the port of Heaven we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift or lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thy sorrows outbid thy heart, thy fears outbid thy sorrows, and thy thoughts go beyond thy fears; and yet here is the comfort of a poor soul: in all his misery and wretchedness, the mercy of Lord outbids all these, whatsoever may, can, or shall befall thee. --THOMAS HOOKER

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
Lena Horne (1917-____) In "The Ultimate Success Quotations Library," by www.cyber-nation.com, 1997.

God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. -- Elbert Hubbard

But they who bleed remember far better.
Victor Hugo.HERNANI, Act IV, scene 4.(English translation by Mrs Newton Crosland.)

Great minds have great purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.--- Washington Irving

As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst things.-William Jenkyn

O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.... John of the Cross (1542-1591)

It is by affliction chiefly that the heart of man is purified, and that the thoughts are fixed on a better state. Prosperity has power to intoxicate the imagination, to fix the mind upon the present scene, to produce confidence and elation, and to make him who enjoys affluence and honors forget the hand by which they were bestowed. It is seldom that we are otherwise than by affliction awakened to a sense of our imbecility, or taught to know how little all our acquisitions can conduce to safety or quiet, and how justly we may inscribe to the superintendence of a higher power those blessings which in the wantonness of success we considered as the attainments of our policy and courage.... Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Seward: "One should think that sickness, and the view of death, would make more men religious." Johnson: "Sir, they do not know how to go about it: they have not the first notion. A man who has never had religion before, no more grows religious when he is sick, than a man who has never learnt figures can count when he has need of calculation. - James Boswell: Life of Samuel Johnson

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.--Samuel Johnson

He whose courage has made way against the turbulence of opposition, and whose vigour has broken through the snares of distress, has many advantages over those that have slept in the shades of indolence, and whose retrospect of time can entertain them with nothing but day rising upon day, and year gliding after year.-- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #150

Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He hath many seekers of comfort, but few of tribulation. He findeth many companions of His table, but few of His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to undergo anything for His sake. Many follow Jesus that they may eat of His loaves, but few that they may drink of the cup of His passion. Many are astonished at His miracles, few follow after the shame of His Cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities happen to them. Many praise Him and bless Him, so long as they receive any comforts from Him. But if Jesus hide Himself and withdraw a little while, they fall either into complaining or into too great dejection of mind. -- Thomas à Kempis

When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything? He had enemies and defamers; do you want everyone to be your friend, your benefactor? How can your patience be rewarded if no adversity tests it? How can you be a friend of Christ if you are not willing to suffer any hardship? Suffer with Christ and for Christ if you wish to reign with Him. Had you but once entered into perfect communion with Jesus or tasted a little of His ardent love, you would care nothing at all for your own comfort or discomfort but would rejoice in the reproach you suffer; for love of Him makes a man despise himself.... Thomas a Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ [1418]

It is good, too, that we sometimes suffer opposition, and that men think ill of us and misjudge us, even when we do and mean well. Such things are an aid to humility, and preserve us from pride and vainglory. For we more readily turn to God as our inward witness, when men despise us and think no good of us. Thomas à Kempis'_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420]: --Bk. 1, ch. 12: "On The Uses of Adversity"

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. -- Helen Keller

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: 'It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity. --- James Keller, Three Minutes by James Keller, M. M., 1950.

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their carvings.-- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, from "To Live Until You Say Goodbye"

No one ever promised us a life free from pain and disappointment. The most anyone promised us was that we would not be alone in our pain, and that we would be able to draw upon a source outside ourselves for the strength and courage we would need to survive life's tragedies and life's unfairness. ~ Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981)

The facts of life and death are neutral. We, by our responses, give suffering either a positive or a negative meaning. Illnesses, accidents, human tragedies kill people. But they do not necessarily kill life or faith. If the death and suffering of someone we love makes us bitter, jealous, against all religion, and incapable of happiness, we turn the person who died into one of the 'devil's martyrs.' ~ Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981)

No path of flowers leads to glory. -- Jean de La Fontaine

We need to suffer that we may learn to pity. -- Letitia Elizabeth Landon

There is a deep peace that grows out of illness and loneliness and a sense of failure. God cannot get close when everything is delightful. He seems to need these darker hours, these empty-hearted hours, to mean the most to people.-- Frank Laubach , letter: 6 FEBRUARY 1931

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 (c.1605-1691)

The flower that follows the sun does so even in cloudy days.-- Robert Leighton

It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand. - Madeleine L'Engle (1918-____)

Noble souls, through dust and heat,
Rise from disaster and defeat
The stronger.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) _Ultima Thule_ [1980], "The Sifting of Peter"

Let us be patient! These severe afflictions,
Not from the ground arise;
But oftentimes celestial benedictions,
Assume this dark disguise.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) _Resignation_

Mishaps are like knives; they either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
James Russell Lowell

A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to your eye and it fills the whole world and puts everything out of focus. Hold it at a proper distance and it can be examined and properly classified. Throw it at your feet and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway of life. -- Celia Luce

I am bigger than anything that can happen to me. All these things, sorrow, misfortune, and suffering, are outside my door. I am in the house and I have the key. -- CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS (1859 - 1928)

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.... George Macdonald (1824-1905)

Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.-- Og Mandino

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees. - Williard Marriott

If your every human plan and calculation has miscarried, if, one by one, human props have been knocked out, and doors have shut in your face, take heart. God is trying to get a message through to you, and the message is: "Stop depending on inadequate human resources. Let me handle the matter."... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983)

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."- Peter Marshall

My soul, alas, needs these uneasinesses in outward things, to be driven to take refuge in God. Henry Martyn

The difficulties, hardships, and trials of life, the obstacles one encounters on the road to fortune, are positive blessings. They knit the muscles more firmly, and teach self-reliance. Peril is the element in which power is developed. --William Matthews (1822-1896)

Different people must contend with different trials, but adversities in some shape or other come to everyone. Life is a procession of people bearing crosses and when one carries his awkwardly he interferes with his fellow marchers.--R. C. McCarthy

Even in the wildest storms the sky is not all dark; and so in the darkest dealings of God with His children, there are always some bright tokens for good.-- Robert Murray McCheyne, letter: , 6 FEBRUARY 1839

Many are the sayings of the wise,
In ancient and in modern books enrolled,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude,
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolatories writ
With studied argument, and much persuasion sought,
Lenient of grief and anxious thought.
But with the afflicted in his pangs their sound
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,
Unless he feel within
Some source of consolation from above,
Secret refreshings that repair his strength
And fainting spirits uphold.
John Milton. (1608 -1674). Samson Agonistes
He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. -- Milton , Areopagitica

Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee. It is with the wind and the storm of tribulation that God, in the garner of the soul, separates the true wheat from the chaff. Always remember, therefore, that God comes to thee in thy sorrows as really as in thy joys. He lays low and He builds up. Thou wilt find thyself far from perfection if thou dost not find God in everything. -- Miguel de Molinos, 1640-97

We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899)

Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852), Come, ye Disconsolate.

Number one, God brought me here. It is by His will that I am in this place. In that fact I will rest. Number two, He will keep me here in His love and give me grace to behave as His child. Number three, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends for me to learn and working in me the grace He means to bestow. Number four, in His good time He can bring me out again. How and when, He knows. So let me say I am here.--Andrew Murray

May I be patient! It is so difficult to make real what one believes, and to make these trials, as they are intended, real blessings.... John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription. -- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Afflictions make them love the word,
Stir up their hearts to prayer;
And many precious proofs afford,
Of their Redeemer's care.
John Newton , SAMPSON's lion. Olnety Hymn No 24.

God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts. -- John Newton (1725-1807)

He knows our sorrows, not merely as He knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin Himself, endured when upon earth inexpressibly more for us than He will ever lay upon us. -- JOHN NEWTON

God's people have no assurances that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay, much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day's allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement. It is no great matter where we are, provided we see that the Lord has placed us there, and that He is with us. -- John Newton

The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow-creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient.... John Newton (1725-1807)

:It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here. - John Newton letter 21 Dec 1776

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. - Thomas Paine

They sicken of the calm that know the storm. -- Dorothy Parker

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.-- Dolly Parton)

Little things console us, because little things afflict us. --Pascal

Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, it no longer matters. ---Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends. -- Plutarch

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.... Plutarch

Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune. - Plutarch

Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.--Plutarch (46-120)_Consolation to Apollonius_

We bear it calmly, though a ponderous woe,
And still adore the hand that gives the blow.
John Pomfret 1667-1703 -To his friend under affliction.

Heaven is not always angry when he strikes,
But most chastises those whom most he likes.
John Pomfret 1667-1703 -To his friend under affliction.

When difficult times come - and they will - we can decide to become bitter, angry, and brittle. Or, we can choose to open our lives to the presence of God, whose nature it is to enlarge us and deepen us and make us better because of what we have endured. - Charles E. Poole

God never promised us light loads. In fact, sometimes the loads are very, very heavy. The weight of life sometimes stoops our shoulders, slows our steps, and robs our sleep. God does not promise to insulate us from burdens and exempt us from sorrow.What God does promise us, though, is to always be with us, to always be for us, and to always wring whatever good can be wrung from life's heaviest burdens and toughest trials.~ Charles E. Poole

I learned much more from defeat than I ever learned from winning. - Grantland Rice (1880 &endash; 1954)

Just as there are laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed But one can be converted into the other. --Spider Robinson, "The Law of Conservation of Pain" _Callahan's Chronicals_

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. Your are able to say for yourself, 'I lived through this horror I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you can not do.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I had a series of childhood illnesses . . . scarlet fever . . . .pneumonia . . . . Polio. I walked with braces until I was at least nine years old. My life wasn't like the average person who grew up and decided to enter the world of sports. -- Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) "USA Today," 6 Aug 1987.

I desire now to make no more pleas with Christ; verily, he hath not put me to a loss by what I suffer; he oweth me nothing; for in my bonds, how sweet and comfortable have the thoughts of him been to me, wherein I find a sufficient recompense of reward!... Samuel Rutherford, letter [1637]

For at my first entry into this trial (being cast down and troubled with challenges and jealousies of His love, whose name and testimony I now bear in my bonds), I feared nothing more than that I was casten over the dyke of the vineyard, as a dry tree. But, blessed be His dear name, the dry tree was in the fire, and was not burnt; His dew came down and quickened the root of a withered plant. And now He is come again with joy, and has been pleased to feast His exiled and afflicted prisoner with the joy of His consolations. Now I weep, but am not sad; I am chastened, but I die not; I have loss, but I want nothing; this water cannot drown me, this fire cannot burn me, because of the good-will of Him that dwelt in the Bush. The worst things of Christ, His reproaches, His cross, are better than Egypt's treasures. I would not give, nor exchange, mybonds for the prelates' velvets; nor my prison for their coaches; nor my sighs for all the world's laughter. This clay-idol, the world, hasno great court in my soul. Christ has come and run away to heaven with my heart and my love, so that neither love is mine:- Samuel Rutherford, Letter XXVII. To LADY HALHILL,ABERDEEN, March 14, 1637

If it were no more than once to see the face of the Prince of this good land, and to be feasted for eternity with the fatness, sweetness, dainties of the rays and beams of matchless glory, and incomparable fountain-love, it were a well-spent journey to creep hands and feet through seven deaths and seven hells, to enjoy Him up at the well-head. Only let us not weary: the miles to that land are fewer and shorter than when we first believed. Strangers are not wise to quarrel with their host, and complain of their lodging. It is a foul way, but a fair home. Oh that I had but such grapes and clusters out of the land as I have sometimes seen and tasted in the place whereof your Ladyship maketh mention! But the hope of it in the end is a heartsome convoy in the way. If I see little more of the gold till the race be ended, I dare not quarrel. It is the Lord!
Samuel Rutherford ,Letter CCCXVIII, to Lady Kenmure, written from London on January 26, 1646. Letters of Samuel Rutherford, pp 635-636 ,edited by A. A. Bonar , the Banner of Truth Trust.

Christ chargeth me to believe His daylight at midnight. -- Samuel Rutherford

Come all crosses, welcome, welcome! so I may get my heart full of my Lord Jesus.... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664)

Whenever I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine. - S. Rutherford

Grace grows better in the winter. - S. Rutherford

Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby. - S. Rutherford

Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner.- S. Rutherford

I am glad that you have been acquainted, from your youth, with the wrestlings of God, being cast from furnace to furnace; knowing, if you were not dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of him, he would not spend as much physic upon you. All the brethren and sisters of Christ must be conformed to his image in suffering, Rom. viii.17, and some do more fully resemble the copy than others.... Samuel Rutherford, letter [1629]

I shall think it mercy to my soul, if my faith shall out- watch all this winter-night, and not nod or slumber, till my Lord's summer-day dawn upon me.... Samuel Rutherford, letter [1637]

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity till he has tasted adversity. - Muslih-uddin Sadi

If I want only pure water, what does it matter to me whether it be brought in a vase of gold or of glass? What is it to me whether the will of God be presented to me in tribulation or consolation, since I desire and seek only the Divine will? -- Francis de Sales

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
William Shakespeare _As You Like It_, Act II, Scene 1, line 12

Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat.--Caroline Schoeder

Wouldn't it be nice if our lives were like VCRS (video recorders), and we could "fast forward' through the crummy times?--Charles Schulz, Peanuts.

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit. Peter Sellers.

Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it; for all is theirs to help them towards heaven; therefore if poverty be good they shall have it; if disgrace or crosses be good they shall have them; for all is ours to promote our greatest prosperity. --RICHARD SIBBES

Measure not God's love and favour by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof. -- RichardSibbes

Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride.Richard Sibbes

We should answer God's dealing by our dealing. He works by contraries; we should judge by contraries. Therefore, if we be in misery, hope and wait for glory, in death look for life, in sense of sin assure thyself of pardon, for God's nature and promises are unchangeable; and when God will forgive, he lets us see our troubles. Therefore with resolute Job say, 'Though he kills me, I will yet trust in him.' - RICHARD SIBBES

God sends burdens, and shoulders, too. =-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gimpel the Fool

Crosses are the ladders that lead to heaven.--Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), _Self Help_ [1859]

Bless you, prison, for having been in my life. The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul. -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I bear my witness that the worst days I have ever had have turned out to be my best days. And when God has seemed most cruel to me, he has then been most kind. If there is anything in this world for which I would bless him more than for anything else, it is for pain and affliction. I am sure that in these things the richest, tenderest love has been manifested to me.
Our Father's wagons rumble most heavily when they are bringing us the richest freight of the bullion of his grace. Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes. The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy. Fear not the storm. It brings healing in its wings, and when Jesus is with you in the vessel, the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 27 [1881]

Those who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls. -- Charles Spurgeon

The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace he will be in the furnace with them. -- Charles H Spurgeon

Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" There are seasons when the brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of God's face from His Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused Him? In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God's face, but art now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the lustre of His grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Saviour have been when He exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" - C H Spurgeon Morning and Evening 15 April

Do not believe that any man will become a physician unless he walks the hospitals. And I am sure that no one will become a minister or a comforter unless he lies in the hospital as well as walks through it, and has to suffer himself. -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) _New Park Street Pulpit_ Vol. 4 [1858

Fiery trials make golden Christians.- Spurgeon's Proverbs

The anvil is not afraid of the hammer. - Charles H. Spurgeon (1834 &endash; 1892)

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. Arnold Schwarzenegger

A holy person is like a silver bell, the harder he is smitten, the better he sounds. -George Swinnock

All [our] difficulties are only platforms for the manifestation of His grace, power and love. -- HUDSON TAYLOR

From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel. - St. THERESA

Crisis does not make men, it reveals men. --Ron Tottingham

What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them... we must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly. --A. W. Tozer

We must face today as children of tomorrow. We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come. To the pure in heart nothing really bad can happen... not death but sin should be our great fear. --A. W. Tozer

By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. - Mark Twain

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. -&endash; Leonardo da Vinci

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

The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. THOMAS WATSON

What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin.
THOMAS WATSON

When God lays men upon their backs, then they look up to heaven. -Thomas Watson

The vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction, and then the wine of glory is poured in. Thus we see afflictions are but beneficial to the saints. Thomas Watson

Man is born to trouble" He is heir apparent to it; he comes into the world with a cry, and goes out with a groan. -Thomas Watson

Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting.-Thomas Watson

There is more evil in a drop of sin, than in a sea of affliction.-Thomas Watson

Whoever brings an affliction, it is God that sends it.-Thomas Watson

God's people have no assurances that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay, much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day's allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement. David Wells

Like many of the leaders and teacher [in the church], perhaps I failed to prepare people for the way of suffering. I had not suffered much myself and did not help people to be ready for it. But the fact is: when you follow Jesus, what happened to Him happens to you.... Todd H. Wetzel, Steadfast Faith [1997

I never feel the power of religion more than when under outward or inward trials. It is that alone which can enable any man to sustain with patience and thankfulness his bodily infirmities. - George Whitefield , journal DECEMBER 18, 1739

I always observe inward trials prepare me for, and are certain forerunners of, fresh mercies. - George Whitefield , journal: DECEMBER 1, 1739

Your extremity shall be God's opportunity.- George Whitefield letter 25 July1741

Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, buy you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way.- David Whyte

High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace. -Tennessee Williams, _Memoir

I am mended by my sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness....Thus was it with....Manasseh, when he was in affliction, "He besought the Lord his God": even that king's iron was more precious to him than his gold, his jail a more happy lodging than his palace, Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! These, how crabbed soever, are our best friends. They are not, indeed, for our pleasure, but for our profit. --Abraham Wright