The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came…. Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory.
– RA Torrey –
Ah, prayer turns trembling saints into great victors! There is no such thing as surrender, or even discouragement, to a man who dwells in the secret place of the Most High and abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
– Henry W. Frost –
Be courageous, O Christian! Be not dispirited, as though your spiritual enemies could never be destroyed; THOU ART CHRIST’S, and sin has NO right to thee. You are able to overcome them not in your own strength – the weakest of them would be too much for you in that; but you can and SHALL overcome them by the blood of the Lamb. Do not ask, “How shall I dispossess them, for they are greater and mightier than I?” but GO to the Strong for strength, wait humbly upon God, and the mighty God of Jacob will surely come to the rescue, and you shall sing of victory through HIS GRACE!
– Charles Spurgeon –
from AMEN & AMEN!
If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. [If] I have so much business, I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.
– Martin Luther –
I do not think I can say too many times that the world is too much with us. I have often wondered why, after getting victory over the world, anybody would want to court the world and allow it back in his or her life. It must be understood most emphatically that the world around us is in conflict with the Word within us. The two are absolutely incompatible. Jesus made it plain when He said, “In the world, but . . .” By that, He meant that although we were in the world, the world was not in us.
The evidence is all around us that it is difficult to break the tyranny of the world. Once the world gets a hold on us, it refused to let go. And it is not hard to see this in, for example, the impulse for entertainment and fun. We certainly live in a fun generation. Unless we can have fun, and unless that thing is going to entertain us, we will wander off to something that will. I am not surprised that this is out in the world, but I am greatly disappointed that it has come into the Church.
– AW Tozer –
from Experiencing the Presence of God, page 205