Sanctification is not our effort

 Sanctification is not fueled by our effort for Christ but by our communion with Christ, and that communion is sustained through God’s ordained means. -- Jeffery Perry.

Do not Expect

 Do not expect everything in life to be good. It will not happen. Do not expect everything in yourself to be good. That will not happen, either. But what you can expect is this: God will weave everything together for His own beloved children to produce a good result, both in time and for all eternity.

~ John MacArthur

Laudable

 Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God.

John Calvin

Carrying the Cross

 "A single day (hour) in Hell will be worse Than a whole life spent Carrying the Cross."  

J.C. Ryle

Carrying our Cross doesn't save us, but knowing that Jesus has delivered us from the justice of God by being our substitute in His Active and Passive Obedience and bearing our sins on the cross and bearing the wrath of God for our sins --- means we WILL be unashamed of Him and being unashamed of Him we will gladly proclaim His righteousness and gift --- and we WILL be willing carry the cross of the world's hatred of Jesus.  Their hatred of Jesus is seen in the cross they put Him on, and their hatred of Jesus is seen in rejecting those who proclaim Him;  Hence they hate Him, they hate us in Him, and therefore we bear the cross of their hatred of Jesus as we proclaim Him.

God of His mercies

 "Every man loves the mercies of God, but a saint loves the God of his mercies."

– John Flavel

Sweetness of Christ

 "Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh."

—Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Glorious Gospel

Entirely Free Purpose of Election

 “Your election, your predestination, your adoption, your inheritance, are owing entirely, freely, gloriously to God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s good pleasure, God’s counsel in eternity, and not to anything in you.” —John Piper

Feel that Life is War

 “If we’re going to sustain a heart for prayer, we’ve got to believe and feel that life is war.⁠” —John Piper

Never brought into Judgment

 “The sins of the saints, the weaknesses and enormities of believers, shall never be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery; they shall never be objected against them, either in their particular day of judgment, or in the great day of their account.”

—Puritan Thomas Brooks, Works 5:53

Flee to Him for Refuge

 Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge.

JOHN OWEN

Suffering

 Christianity is not the removal of suffering, but the addition of grace to endure suffering triumphantly.

Thomas Watson

Unconditional Love

 “After ten thousand sins God loves you as infinitely as ever.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Not Happy

 "We have seen men with money, who were not happy; we have seen men with honour, who were not happy; we have seen persons in power, with the command of empires, who were not happy; but we never saw, and never shall see, the individual who hath Jesus with him, that is not happy."

Charles Spurgeon

[Yet consider that Spurgeon struggle with Depression]

Depression

 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. (Matthew 26:37)

The Bible gives us an amazing glimpse into the soul of Jesus the night before he was crucified. Watch and learn from the way Jesus fought his strategic battle against despondency or depression.

1. He chose some close friends to be with him. “Taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 26:37).

2. He opened his soul to them. He said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38).

3. He asked for their intercession and partnership in the battle. “Remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38).

4. He poured out his heart to his Father in prayer. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).

5. He rested his soul in the sovereign wisdom of God. “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

6. He fixed his eye on the glorious future grace that awaited him on the other side of the cross. “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: The first shock waves of the bomb in your heart, like the ones Jesus felt in Gethsemane, are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that sinful surrender is unbelief — a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.

In Gethsemane Jesus shows us another way. Not painless, and not passive. Follow him. Find your trusted spiritual friends. Open your soul to them. Ask them to watch with you and pray. Pour out your soul to the Father. Rest in the sovereign wisdom of God. And fix your eyes on the joy set before you in the precious and magnificent promises of God.