Romans 8:28

There is nothing -- No circumstance, No trouble, No testing that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ. Right through to me if it has come that far. It has come with great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment - but as I refuse to panic, as I lift my eyes up to Him and accept it as come from His throne for some great blessing of purpose of blessing to my heart. No sorrow will disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the Joy of what my Lord is - that is the rest of Victory.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:57

There are 2 ways Satan assaults the glory of God in the lives of Christians: pleasure and pain..he uses pain to make us feel that God is powerless and hostile and he uses pleasure to make us feel that God is unnecessary (from the parable of the sower of the seed: "the pleasures of the world choke the word of God") Do you have pleasure or pain in your life today? Satan is after you and God is after you: God's purpose for pleasure is gratitude, and God's purpose for pain is trusting in Him in spite of it so that He shines and is more valuable to you than what you lost. God's and Satan's design in pain and pleasure is the total opposite! Life is like war, when things are going well and when things are going badly..which is the harder war? when things are bad - it is harder physically..when things are going well - it is harder in terms of spiritual vitality.

Christ's priorities of what he wants for you are so different from your own priorities, that if you do not begin to get your mind saturated with Jesus' way of thinking, then you will not be able to make sense out of the pain in your life. You tend to get angrier and angrier - because your priorities are, "if He loved me then..." and you will provide a list of all your demands and it is not His list, it is not the way Jesus thinks, because what He values are hearts that are so enamoured with Him that shines more clearly when everything we were leaning on is gone.

This is God's universal purpose for all Christian suffering - more contentment in God and less satisfaction with self.

~ Quotes by John Piper

Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consquences as they come, without any complaint, in spite of what God sends your way. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you.

When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, or sickness - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.

It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. The only thing that will enable me to enjoy adversity is the acute sense of eagerness of allowing the life of the Son of God to evidence itself in me. No matter how difficult something may be, I must say "Lord, I am delighted to obey you in this." Instantly, the Son of God will move to the forefront of my life, and will manifest in my body that which glorifies Him. You must not debate. The moment you obey the light of God, His Son shines through you in that very adversity; but if you debate with God, you grieve His Spirit. You must keep yourself in the proper condition to allow the life of the Son of God to be manifested in you, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self pity. It is one thing to choose adversity, and quite another to enter into adversity through the orchestrating of our circumstances by God's sovereignty. And if God puts you into adversity, He is adequately sufficient to "supply all your needs" (Philippians 4:19).

God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. 1 Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not think it is strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you.." Rise to the occasion -- do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body. May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality -- a readiness to face anything He sends our way. The only proper gola of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father; and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured out wine with which to feed and nourish others.

God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn't ask, "Do you want to go through the loss of a loved one, this difficulty or this defeat? No, he allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault finding and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy.

~ Quotes by Oswald Chambers

God cannot use mightily the man whom he has not wounded deeply.

~ A.W. Tozer

In times of trouble say, First: He brought me here ; it is by His will I am in this strait place: In that I will rest. Next: He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child. Then: He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow. Last: In His good time He can bring me out again - how and when He knows. Say: I am here: (1) by God's appointment (2) in His keeping (3) under His training (4) for His time.

~ Andrew Murray

I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God.

~ Helen Keller