Bruisest Me

Thou Lord bruisest me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.

--John Calvin.

Marks of a Child

"One of the marks of a child of God is that, although he sins, he does not 'love' sin. He may 'fall' into sin but he is like a sheep which, if it tumbles into the mud, is quickly up again; for it hates the mire. The sow wallows where the sheep is distressed."

 — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Take Away

 "God can take away his people's sorrow and fill them with exultant joy."

— Charles Spurgeon

You are Vexed

 You that are vexed at your own doubts are not to come to the conclusion that the Lord utterly rejects you. He discriminates between the folly of a child and the wickedness of a rebel: he knows what is in your heart, and knows that you are his.

Spurgeon

Unbelief of Anxiety

 "We battle the unbelief of anxiety with the promises of God. When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with the promise: “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise, “So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not come back to me empty but accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and “As your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8). When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, “If God is for us who can be against us!” (Romans 8:31). When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise that “tribulation works patience, and patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not make us ashamed” (Romans 5:3–5). When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself; if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living” (Romans 14:8–9). When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promise, “He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6). “He who calls you is faithful. He will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). “He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25)."

Sermon, Battling the Unbelief of Anxiety, John Piper.

No Accidents

 "To the child of God, there is no such thing as an accident. He travels an appointed way. The path he treads was chosen for him when as yet he was not, when as yet he had existence only in the mind of God. Accidents may indeed appear to befall him and misfortune stalk his way; but these evils will be so in appearance only and will seem evil only because we cannot read the script of God's hidden providence and so cannot discover the ends at which He aims...The man of true faith may live in the absolute assurance that his steps are ordered by the Lord. For him, misfortune is outside the bounds of possibility. He is not a waif of the wide world, a foundling of time and space, but a saint of the Lord and the darling of His particular care."

~ A.W. Tozer 1897-1963

Give me Strength

 “Give me strength against all my temptations, and patience under all my sufferings. In the midst of all my fears and anxieties, I would give You thanks for Your sparing mercy. I have grievously sinned, O Lord, and merit Your hot displeasure. But I would cast myself wholly upon Your mercy in Christ Jesus. Oh, hear me in the day of trouble. Send help from Your sanctuary, and strengthen me from Zion. Give me grace, O Lord, in remembrance of Your past loving-kindness — so to trust in Your goodness, to submit to Your wisdom, and meekly to bear what You think fit to lay upon me — that I may be brought to say at the last, "It was good for me that I was afflicted!" Grant this measure of grace unto Your servant for Your Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.”

~ John MacDuff 1818-1895, “Encouragements to Patient Waiting”

Lead them to the Gospel

 Seeking mortification of sin just to quiet the soul and find relief from the torment of the conscience, all the while neglecting to deal with the root cause of sin, is a result of self-love. Men are diverted from coming to God this way. This is of the most common deception in which men ruin their souls. They seek to apply themselves to victory over the troubling sin but do not allow their conviction to lead them to the gospel. They perish in their “reformation”.

~John Owen

Freed to Love Him

 When our sense of guilt is taken away because our consciences are cleansed by the blood of Christ, we're freed up to love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds…Our love will be spontaneous in an outpouring of gratitude to Him and fervent desire to obey Him.

Jerry Bridges

Struggle Against Joy

 Sinners cannot imagine that the things they love are the very things that keep them from happiness. Their fear of the light and refusal to let go of the darkness is a struggle against joy.

Michael Reeves

Do not Look to Your Faith

"Do not look to your faith, nor to your repentance, nor to your prayers, nor to your works. Look to Christ. If you look to your faith, you will soon have no faith. If you look to your prayers, you will soon have no prayers to present. But if you look to Christ, you will find faith and prayer and everything else coming to you as a matter of course."

-Spurgeon

We Love Something

 The human heart was created to love, and it will never remain empty. If we do not set our affection upon God, we will inevitably give our love to something else, whether the passing pleasures of the world, the deceitfulness of sin, or the idols of our own desires. Yet all these things are unworthy objects of ultimate devotion, for they cannot satisfy the soul, endure the test of time, or save us in the day of judgment. By contrast, God is infinitely lovely, perfectly good, and the source of every true blessing. To love Him is not merely a duty but the highest privilege of man, for in loving God we find the very purpose for which we were created and the only object of affection that can never disappoint, decay, or be taken away. He who loves God most becomes the richest blessing to those around him.

Monergism; (probably elaborating on Thomas Watson).

Thomas Waston.

God Loves Us

 What would keep us from believing God loves us? The answer is a sense of guilt and condemnation because of our sin. The same tender conscience that enables us to become aware of sins that lie deep beneath the level of external actions can also load us down with guilt. When we're under that burden and sense of condemnation, it is difficult to love God or believe that He loves us.

We cannot love God if we think we're under His judgment and condemnation. James Fraser said, "But whilst the conscience retains the charge of guilt, condemnation, and wrath, there cannot be purity, or sincerity of heart toward God, or sincerity of the love of God. Human nature is so formed, that it cannot love any object that is adverse and terrible to it."

Jerry Bridges

Sea of Sorrow

 "You must be plunged into that sea of sorrow; but it will not drown you, it will only wash and cleanse you."

— Charles Spurgeon