There is absolutely no excuse to stay where you are at right now. If you are weak, He can make you strong. If you are timid He can make you brave. If you are a pervert, He can make you pure. If you are selfish, He can make you selfless. If you are a shepherd, He can make you a king. If you are mediocre, He can make you a Mighty One of valor.
– Eric Ludy –
from Wrestling Prayer
The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.
– AW Tozer –
AW Tozer’s Rules for Self-Discovery:
1. What we want most
2. What we think about most
3. How we use our money
4. What we do with our leisure time
5. The company we enjoy
6. Who and what we admire
7. What we laugh at
– AW Tozer –
Beware, I pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then hast thou reason to rejoice: but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying “I am saved” is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it will not deliver thee.
– Charles Spurgeon –
There is a growing conviction everywhere, and especially among thoughtful people, that unless revival comes, other forces will take the field, that will sink us still deeper into the mire of humanism and materialism.
– Duncan Campbell –
We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory: but is it any evidence that we really design it if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us, and have only occasional thoughts of things above?
– John Owen –
There seems to be a notion abroad that if we talk enough and pray enough, revival will set in like a stock market boom or a winning streak on a baseball club. We appear to be waiting for some sweet chariot to swing low and carry us into the Big Rock Candy Mountain of religious experience … a kind of benign miracle, a feverish renaissance of religious activity that will come upon us, leaving us morally as we are now, except that we will be a lot happier and there will be a great many more of us …
– AW Tozer –
If a man is born again, hates sin, and depends upon the Savior for life and grace, I care not whether he be an Arminian or a Calvinist. If he be not born again, he is nothing, let him be called by what name he will.
– John Newton –
To be where God is quietly talked about seems a lovely thing. But to be where God really grips us is a risky matter. As long as a Living God is about and given any chance at all, it will be found dangerous to be in His presence. Dangerous, that is, to everything that is more to our liking than it is to His. Church going should be dangerous to our self-esteem and self-satisfaction.
– Dr. Paul S. Rees –