Is there any privilege so precious as this, to be the sons of God (1 John 3:2)? What are all the relations, or states, or conditions to this one, to be the children of the Highest? It was David’s question, “Should I be the king’s son-in-law?” Alas! What a petty and poor dignity compared with this, to be the sons of God, partakers of a divine nature!
– Hugh Binning –
from the book Christian Love
1627-1653
Continue, then, always with God; it is the only support and comfort for your affliction.
– Brother Lawrence –
from The Practice of the Presence of God
“Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). Keep the child-like habit of continually exclaiming in your heart to God, recognize and rely on the Holy Spirit all the time. Inarticulate prayer, the impulsive prayer that looks so futile, is the thing God always heeds. The apostolic habit ought to be the persistent habit of each one of us.
– Oswald Chambers –
from If You Will Ask
It has been said, that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained, by one who did not take time to be often, and long, alone with God.
– Austen Phelps –
from The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
The first effect of a true love for Christ is our clinging to him. The believer’s soul is knit to Christ’s soul as David’s was to Jonathan’s (1 Samuel 18:1). Love produces a firm clinging to Christ crucified that makes a soul in some sense always present with Christ on the cross.
– John Owen –
from The Holy Spirit, 1674
The Holy Spirit is not a power that in any sense is subordinate to us, entrusted to us, or to be used by us. He is an energizing power that is over and above us, carrying forward His work from moment to moment. Our right place and our proper attitude must always be that of the deepest dependence in our own nothingness and impotence. Our chief concern is to let Jesus do His work within us.
– Andrew Murray –
from Experiencing the Holy Spirit
Not how many meetings you go to.
Not how many gifts you have.
Not how many sermons you preach.
Not how many records you’ve made.
Tell me what time you spend alone with God …
and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.
– Leonard Ravenhill –
Rose early to seek God and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –
Journal Entry: February 23, 1834