If we suffer persecution and affliction in a right manner, we attain a larger measure of conformity to Christ, by a due improvement of one of these occasions, than we could have done merely by imitating his mercy, in abundance of good works.
– John Wesley –
How did Jesus expect His disciples to react under persecution? (In Matthew 5:12 He said), “Rejoice and be glad!” We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor sulk like a child, nor lick our wound in self-pity like a dog, nor just grin a bear it like a Stoic, still less pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. What then? We are to rejoice as a Christian should and even “leap for joy” (Lk. 6:23).
– John Stott –
from The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, IVP, 1978, p. 52.
The apostles went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, that they were graced so far as to be disgraced for the name of Christ!
– Thomas Watson –
1600s Puritan
The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter of prayer; but a capacity for faith, the power of a thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one’s self in God’s glory and an ever present and insatiable yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God.
– EM Bounds –
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer –
We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.
– DL Moody –
Keep us little and unknown, prized and loved by God alone.
– Charles Wesley –
Unwillingness to accept God’s “way of escape” from temptation frightens me what a rebel yet resides within.
– Jim Elliot –