When I speak of a person growing in grace, I mean simply this —that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, and his spiritual mindedness more marked.
– JC Ryle –
Christian Life
Find Rest in God – Corrie Ten Boom
If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.
– Corrie ten Boom –
The Habit of True Prayer – Martin Luther
We must be careful not to break the habit of true prayer and … become lax and lazy, cool and listless toward prayer. The devil who besets us is not lazy or careless, and our flesh is too ready and eager to sin and is disinclined to the spirit of prayer.
– Martin Luther –
from A Simple Way to Pray
The Treasure of Affliction – Thomas Brooks
Afflictions are the golden key by which the Lord opens the rich treasure of His word to his people’s souls.
– Thomas Brooks –
1608–1680
Walking the Talk – William Perkins
God abhors Godly speech which is not joined with a Godly life (Psalm 50:16-17).
– William Perkins –
1592
Do you look like the world? – AW Tozer
One compromise here, another there, and soon enough the so-called Christian and the man in the world look the same.
– AW Tozer –
from A Man of God
The great desire of the converted – Joseph Alleine
Before conversion, the man made light of Christ, minded his farm, friends, merchandise, more than Christ; now, Christ is to him as his necessary food, his daily bread, the life of his heart, the staff of his life. His great desire is, that Christ may be magnified in him.
– Joseph Alleine –
from A Sure Guide to Heaven, 1671
Saints Upon Their Knees – William Cowper
Satan trembles, when he sees
the weakest saint upon his knees.
– William Cowper –
from the hymn What Various Hindrances We Meet, 1779
Earnest About Your Soul – JC Ryle
“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 3:18)
The man who has nothing more than a kind of Sunday religion—whose Christianity is like his Sunday clothes, put on once a week, and then laid aside—such a man cannot, of course, be expected to care about “growth in grace.” He knows nothing about such matters. “They are foolishness to him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). But to everyone who is in downright earnest about his soul, and hungers and thirsts after spiritual life, the question ought to come home with searching power. Do we make progress in our religion? Do we grow?
– JC Ryle –
1816-1900