Hardship

The Strength to Stand – Richard Sibbes

With the freedom of spirit, there is courage and strength of faith against opposition… It gives him courage and strength to resist. The more opposition, the more courage he has. When the early Christians had the Spirit of God (Acts 4:23ff), they resisted opposition, and the more they were opposed, the more they grew. They were cast in prison, and rejoiced. And the more they were imprisoned, the more courageous they were still.

– Richard Sibbes –
from Glorious Freedom, 1639

Fixed in Heaven – Thomas Brooks

Although you see the stars sometimes by their reflections in a puddle, or in the bottom of a well, yes, in a stinking ditch; yet the stars have their situation in heaven. So, though you see a godly man in a poor, miserable, low, despised condition for the things of this world, yet he is fixed in heaven, in the region of heaven: “Who has raised us up,” says the apostle, “and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:6).

– Thomas Brooks –
from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

Cling to the Gospel in Suffering – Charles Spurgeon

The more I suffer the more I cling to the gospel. It is true, and the fires only burn it into clearer certainty to my soul. I have lived on the gospel, and I can die on it. Never question it.

– Charles Spurgeon –
from Letters of Charles Haddon Spurgeon