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
Pray without ceasing. –Thes 5:17
Are you praying in everything without ceasing, in the closet, hidden from men, and praying always and everywhere? That is the personal, pertinent, and all-important question for every person.
– EM Bounds –
Oh! that the holy life of the blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts, and before mine eyes, till I receive a deep sense and impression of those excellent graces that shined so eminently in him; and let me never cease my endeavours, till that new and divine nature prevail in my soul, and Christ be formed within me.
– Henry Scougal –
from The Life of God in the Soul of Man
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
Use duty, but trust to Christ and free grace for acceptance. Be like Noah’s dove: she made use of her wings to fly, but trusted to the ark for safety.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Lords Supper, 1665
It is not my ability, but my response to Gods ability, that counts.
– Corrie ten Boom –
“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
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