To
know that nothing hurts the godly is a matter of comfort; but to be assured
that all things which fall out shall cooperate for their good, that their
crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of affliction water the
withering root of their grace and make it flourish more. This may fill their
hearts with joy till they run over.
-Thomas
Watson
Now
God takes away the world that the heart may cleave more to Him in sincerity.
-Thomas
Watson
God
sweetens outward pain with inward peace.
-Thomas
Watson
Not
to be afflicted is a sign of weakness; therefore God imposes no more on me,
because He sees I can bear no more.
-Joseph
Hall
The
winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare
the soul for glory.
-Richard
Sibbes
Do
not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh tend to waken Christians
to faith and prayer, to a sight of the emptiness of this world, and the fading
of the best it yields? Does not God by these things (at times) call our sins to
remembrance, and provoke us to amendment of life? How, then, can we be offended
at things by which we reap so much good? Therefore if my enemy hungers, let me
feed him; if he thirsts, let me give him drink. Now in order to do this,
(1)
We must see well in that in which other men can see none.
(2)
We must pass by those injuries that men would revenge.
(3)
We must show, we have grace, and that we are made to bear what other men are
not acquainted with.
(4)
Many of our graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death of
other men’s souls…the devil, (they say) is good when he is pleased; but Christ
and His saints, when displeased.
-John
Bunyan
As
the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst.
-William
Jenkyn
Poverty
and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride.
-Richard
Sibbes
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 so ever, are our best friends. They are not, indeed, for our pleasure –
they are for our profit.
-Abraham
Wright
Labor
to grow better under all your afflictions, lest your afflictions grow worse,
lest God mingle them with more darkness, bitterness and terror.
-John
Owen
The
secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for
the Lord’s choicest wines.
-Samuel
Rutherford
-Gleaned
from the internet
