A revival of religion is indispensable to avert the judgments of God from the church. … The fact is, Christians are more to blame for not being revived, than sinners are for not being converted. And if Christians are not awakened, they may know assuredly that God will visit them with His judgments. How often God visited the Jewish church with judgments because they would not repent and be revived at the call of His prophets.
– Charles Finney –
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
(Hebrews 11:6 ESV)
He is a rewarder of them that seek him; they shall not seek in vain, if they seek in truth.
– Ralph Venning –
from Learning in Christ’s School, 1675
Though the love that is in Him is essential to His nature, and can vary no more than God himself: yet we see not this love but by the fruits of it, nor can it otherwise be discerned. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). We must then betake ourselves to the discoveries of this love.
– John Bunyan –
from All Loves Excelling, 1692
We cannot have flowers without roots, or fruit without trees. We cannot have the fruit of the Spirit, without vital union with Christ, and a new creation within.
– JC Ryle –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Volume 2: Luke 6:27-38), 1856
Keep the soul open to entertain the Holy Ghost, for he will bring in continually fresh forces to subdue corruption.
– Richard Sibbs –
from The Bruised Reed, 1630
Prayer is not meant to develop us, but to develop the life of God in us after the new birth.
– Oswald Chambers –
Are not our prayers so often ineffective and powerless—and sometimes even prayerless—becuase we rush unthinkingly and unpreparedly into God’s presence, without realizing the majesty and glory of the God whom we are approaching, and without reflecting upon the exceeding great riches of his glory in Christ Jesus, which we hope to draw upon? We must “think magnificently of God.”
– Unknown Christian –
from The Kneeling Christian
It is not my ability, but my response to Gods ability, that counts.
– Corrie ten Boom –
Is he the God of the hills, and not of the valleys? Did he love me in my youth and health, and will he not also in my age and pain and sickness?
– Richard Baxter –
from Dying Thoughts, 1683