Father, let me loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me loose the tension of the grasping hand. Open my hand to receive the nail of Calvary, as Christ’s was opened. He thought Heaven, yea, equality with God, not a thing to be clutched at. So let me release my grasp.
– Jim Elliot –
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 –
God abhors Godly speech which is not joined with a Godly life (Psalm 50:16-17).
– William Perkins –
1592
“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
The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is not to give thrills but to create in us Christlike character.
– JI Packer –
I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.
– DL Moody –
When Holy God draws near in true revival, people come under terrible conviction of sin. The outstanding feature of spiritual awakening has been the profound consciousness of the Presence and holiness of God.
– Henry Blackaby –
God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.
– Oswald Chambers –
The Christian’s life is a matchless riddle. No worldling can understand it. Dead, yet alive! Crucified with Christ, and yet at the same time Risen with Christ in newness of life! Union with the suffering, bleeding Saviour, and death to the world and sin, are soul-cheering things. O for more enjoyment of them.
– Charles Spurgeon –