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• "The opposite of faith is not doubt or even unbelief, but rather, fear. "Whenever we are threatened by forces beyond our control, fear and faith compete for our allegiance." For this reason, no command is repeated more often in the Bible than the simple command, "Fear not." We should not be surprised that it is the storms of life that actually prove our faith. "Reading Mark helps one learn to trust in a Savior who does not deliver us from storms but through the storms. Christianity is not a refuge from the uncertainties and insecurities of the world." Instead, our faith is a refuge in the midst of the uncertainties and insecurities of the world." Rich Vincent
• "In suffering - - pray that the trial increases your capacity for faith." Bob O'Bannon
• "Faith only grows through suffering" Mark Driscoll, sermon on the Book of Habakkuk
• "When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery....Will there also be faith? DA Carson, How Long O Lord
• "Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 - 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." John Calvin
• "When our faith is tested by suffering "as gold is tried in a furnace" and we depend with confidence on God and rely entirely on his help, we will be granted the most excellent gift of patience and through faith "we may victoriously persevere to the end." John Calvin
• "Faith and patience are exceptional virtues in those that suffer. Patience is the fruit and evidence of faith. (One then may conclude - - if I have no patience, then I have no faith)." John Calvin
• "If God were not to test us, there would be no patience." John Calvin
• "Prayer doesn't change things - - God changes things in answer to prayer " John Calvin
• "When pain and suffering strike, our faith is well founded if it is standing on the promises of God. For all of God's promises have strong confirmation in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20 - For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.)" - John Calvin
• "Tears that are shed in time of affliction are rarely tears of penitence, but more likely they are shed out of self pity and pain or sorrow." John Calvin
• "Just because we don't see a reason for evil and suffering doesn't mean there's not a reason for it.Consider the story of Joseph and the amazing conclusion in Genesis 50:20 - " You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." There are countless other stories, where suffering was not good, but with time and perspective, some see the good that resulted from the pain and tragedy in their lives." Tim Keller
• "Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points of identification with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear medals but carry no scars." Vance Havner
• "The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love." Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
• "The value of the cross is directly proportionate to my awareness of my own sin. The minute I fail to see my own sin, the cross loses its meaning. As soon as my problems can be explained on some basis other than sin, the cross becomes superfluous... As difficult as the cross is to understand, only my sin will give it any meaning at all." (John Fischer, "On a Hill Too Far Away," 105)
• "It is the spectators, the people who are outside, looking at the tragedy, from whose ranks the skeptics come; it is not those who are actually in the arena and who know suffering from the inside. Indeed, the fact is that it is the world's greatest sufferers who have produced the most shining examples of unconquerable faith." James Stewart
• "Don't pray for a lighter burden. Pray for a stronger back. " Unknown
• "True faith is trusting the sovereign God even when we don't understand." Hank Haanegraff
• "He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing; St. Augustine
• "Satan's aim is to destroy our joy and trust and delight in God, and to make God look worthless in the world's eyes. Everytime someone forsakes God for the world, gets angry at God when part of the world is taken away from them, they highlight the world as valuable....and everytime someone stays with God, when the world is taken away, and praises God, they highlight the value and glory of God". John Piper
• "The bible never belittles disappointment, but it does add one key word: temporary - - What we feel now, we will not always feel. Our disappointment is itself a sign, and aching, a hunger for something better. And faith is , in the end, a kind of homesickness - - for a home we have never visited but have never once stopped longing for." Phillip Yancey
• "We human beings instinctively regard the seen world as the "real" world and the unseen world as the "unreal" world, but the Bible calls for almost the opposite." Phillip Yancey
• "If we insist on visible proofs from God, we may well prepare the way for a permanent state of disappointment. True faith does not so much attempt to manipulate God to do our will as it does to position us to do his will. As I searched through the Bible for models of great faith, I was struck by how few saints experienced anything like Job's dramatic encounter with God. The rest responded to the hiddenness not by demanding that he show himself, but by going ahead and believing him though he stayed hidden." Phillip Yancey
• "I say this with care, but I wonder if a fierce, insistent desire for a miracle - - even a physical healing - sometimes betrays a lack of faith rather than an abundance of it. When yearning for a miraculous resolution to a problem, do we make our loyalty to God contingent on whether he reveals himself yet again in the seen world?" Phillip Yancey
• "Faith like Job's cannot be shaken becasue it is the result of having been shaken." Rabbi Abraham Heschel
• "Christians remind me of schoolboys who want to look up the answers to their math problems in the back of the book rather than work them through" Kierkegaard [we yearn for shortcuts, which lead away from growth - not toward it.]
• "God's favorites, especially God's favorites, are not immune from the bewildering times when God seems silent. Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either. Faith demands uncertainty, confusion. The Bible includes many proofs of God's concern - some quite spectacular - but no guarantess. A guarantee would, after all, preclude faith." Paul Tournier
• "To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment, nontheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love him." Frederick Buechner
• "The point of the Book of Job is not suffering: where is God When It hurts? The prologue (chapters 1-2) dealt with that issue. The point of the Book of Job is faith: Where is Job when it hurts?" - Phillip Yancey
• "The most important things in life are intangible." Monsignor Tom Hartman
• “The very fact that faith looks to a power beyond itself means that it is continually subject to loss of control. So if you’re looking to get control of all your problems, forget Christianity. If you’re looking for success, happiness, or freedom from pain, forget Christ. The way of Christ is the cross, and the cross spells weakness, poverty, failure, death.” (Mason, Gospel According to Job, 418)
• “Take away material prosperity; take away emotional highs; take away miracles and healing; take away fellowship with other believers; take away church; take away all opportunity for service; take away assurance of salvation; take away the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit... Yes! Take it all, all, far, far away. And what is left? Tragically, for many believers there would be nothing left. For does our faith really go that deep? Or do we, in the final analysis, have a cross-less Christianity? Unless the simple gospel has center-place in our faith, it has no place at all. Unless the cross is everything, it is nothing.” (Mason, Gospel According to Job, 210)
• "It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey." AB Simpson
• "God allows us to dace difficulties so that our faith will be stretched and refined. The trials we face provide an excellent opportunity for us to declare our dependence on God and not on ourselves. The way we win the battle with discouragement is by humbling ourselves before God and telling Him that we need Him. There is only one way to do this, and it is through prayer." Charles Stanley
• "Prayer is an act of faith. Just by praying to God, you are declaring our trust in someone other than yourself. Your faith is increased as you pray and watch how God answers your prayers. God says in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. God is awesome in power and there is never a time when He is not beside you. He is faithful and holy." Charles Stanley
• "The storms in my life have become workshops where I can practice my faith in God's sovereignty." Jill Briscoe
• "Trust in the Lord is the only true antidote to fear. Focusing on God rather than the trial will keep us from sinking in fear. However, learning to face our fears does not mean we will never have another anxious moment. Faith does not lie in trusting God to stop the storm, but in trusting Him to enable us to walk through the storm. When trouble occurs, He will give us the ability to cope with it." Jill Briscoe
• "This idea of dying to self and "taking up your cross" is one of the hardest concepts in the Christian faith to understand. But it is hard not because it is complicated. It is hard because it is so difficult to accept. We try to complicate it precisely because we know intuitively what it means, and we do not like the idea. No one likes to die." (John Fischer, "On a Hill TOO Far Away, 126)
• "We like to talk about having the faith to be healed - what about the faith to be sick?." - Mike Mason
• "When people are in crisis:
  • - dreams die
  • - time slows down
  • - relationships are strained
  • - ignorance multiplies
  • - power evaporates
  • - character is tested
  • - priorities are altered
  • - we think more about whats important in life
  • - and sometimes, faith falters
  Pastor Charles Ware, President Baptist Bible College - Indpls, IN
• "True worship has less to do with offering sacrifices than with being a sacrifice ourselves." Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job
• "Faith is holding onto uncertainties with passionate conviction." Soren Kierkegaard
• "Real faith is refined in the fires and storms of pain". Eugene Peterson
• "Every truth about suffering can be twisted into a weapon for or against God. Most often suffering speeds us in the direction we are already heading - whether toward or away from God." David McKenna, The Whisper of His Grace
• "We are puzzled and bewildered whenever we see suffering in this world because we have become accustomed to the mercy and the long-suffering of God. Amazing grace is no longer amazing to us." R.C. Sproul, Reason to Believe
• "When you go through a trial, the sovreignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head." Charles Spurgeon.
• "How can we bless at one moment and curse at another?", Joni Eareckson Tada, Glorious Intruder
• "Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens-if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it, we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster.", Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
• "Paul welcomed hearbreak, disillusionment and tribulation for only one reason - - these things kept him immovable in his devotion to the gospel of God," Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
• "If there were never any clouds (sorrows and sufferings) in our lives, we would have no faith. God does not come near us without clouds." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
• "When you cannot see his hand, trust his heart." Unknown
• "Religion is for people who are afraid to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there." Martha Manning, Undercurrents
• "Satan is ever seeking to inject that poison into our hearts to distrust God's goodness - especially in connection with his commandments. That is what really lies behind all evil, lusting and disobedience. A discontent with our position and portion, a craving from something whih God has wisely held from us. Reject any suggestion that God is unduly sever with you. Resist with the utmost abhorrence anything that causes you to doubt God's love and his lovingkindness towards you. Allow nothing to make you question the Father's love for his child." Arhtur Pink
• "You have to have faith that there is a reason you go through certain things. I can't say I'm glad to go through pain, but in a way, one must, in order to gain courage and really feel joy." Carol Burnett
• "When we are in a situation where Jesus is all we have, we soon discover He is all we really need." Gigi Graham Tchividjian
• "Where reasons are given, we don't need faith. Where only darkness surrounds us, we have no means for seeing except by faith. Elisabeth Elliot
• "It is not all darkness in a heart which can cry, "My God". Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 88
• "The same sun that melts the butter hardens the clay." Billy Graham ("Suffering is paradoxical. It has a way of making or breaking us. It can convert a person into a bitter, depressed and vengeful wretch who spends his time shaking his fist at God. Or, it can have the opposite effect; it can draw a person deeper into the Lord and shape that person more fully into the image of Jesus. The response depends upon the quality of one's faith." - Dr. David Reagan))
• God never answers the question, "Why me, Lord?" Instead, He calls upon the questioner to lean on his faith and trust that God knows best and that all things work together for good for those who know the Lord. Thus, when Habakkuk cried out, "Why me, Lord?" The Lord answered, "The righteous shall live by faith" (Hab. 2:4). When Paul cried out, "Why me, Lord?" The Lord answered, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor. 12:9). - Dr. David Reagan
• "God always seems bigger to those who need him most. And suffering is the tool he uses to help us need him more." Joni Eareckson Tada
• "The problem of suffering is not about something but about someone."Joni Eareckson Tada
• "Testimonies of a person's faith are never given out of ease. No one ever came to Jesus Christ because they won the lottery!" Kimber Kaufman
• "Best definition of prayer I know? - - - - - "CRY" "Charles Spurgeon
• "Be persistent with your disturbance until you get face to face with the Lord himself. Don't deify common sense. To sit calmly by, instead of creating a disturbance, serves only to deify our common sense. When Jesus asks what we want Him to do for us about the incredible problem that is confronting us, remember that He doesn't work in commonsense ways, but only in supernatural ways. Look at how we limit the Lord only by remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past. We say, "I always failed there, and I always will." Consequently, we don't ask for what we want. Instead, we think, "it's ridiculous to ask God to do this." If it is an impossibility, it is the very thing for which we have to ask. If it is not an impossible thing, it is not a real disturbance. And God will do what is absolutely impossible. We find faith by not only believing what Jesus says, but even more, by trusting Jesus himself. If we only look at what he says, we will never believe. Once we see Jesus, the impossible things He does in our lives will seem as natural as breathing. The agony we suffer is only the result of the deliberate shallowness of our own heart. We won't believe; we won't let go by severing the line that secures the boat to the shore - - we prefer to worry." Oswald Chambers
• "Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led - but it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of FAITH, not of understanding and reason- - a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in this world. The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soraing on eagle's wings, but is a life of day-in day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting." Oswald Chambers
• "Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovreignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in his blessings, instead of God Himself." Oswald Chambers
• It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means that we do not believe God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He put in us? Is it the devil? No - - "the cares of this world" (Mat 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, "I will not trust what I cannot see" and that is where unbelief begins. the only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit. The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon." Oswald Chambers
• "Men will never be great in theology until they are great in suffering." Charles Spurgeon

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