Intimate experimental acquaintance with Him will make us truly happy. Nothing else will. If we are not happy Christians (I speak deliberately, I speak advisedly) there is something wrong. If we did not close the past year in a happy frame of spirit, the fault is ours, and ours alone. In God our Father, and the blessed Jesus, our souls have a rich, divine, imperishable, eternal treasure. Let us enter into practical possession of these true riches; yea, let the remaining days of our earthly pilgrimage be spent in an ever-increasing, devoted, earnest consecration of our souls to God.
Growth
Mary Slessor
The smallest things are as absolutely necessary as the great things.
Oswald Chambers
Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Some people mature into an understanding of God’s will more quickly than others because they obey more readily; they more readily sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God.
Katherine Walden
For many years, I pleaded with God to bring people to me who would hold me up. I believed I was too broken and weak to stand on my own. In His wisdom, He didn’t answer my prayer the way I thought He should. He provided me with wise mentors who opened my eyes to this truth. I would never develop an inner strength without facing adversity head on. They provided me with the tools I needed, God provided me with His empowering grace, and it was up to me to allow my roots to grow deep. It was up to me to face adversity head on and to not retreat.
Lisa Bevere
Sometimes arriving too quickly is detrimental. It is dangerous to arrive without our character mature or intact.
Athanasius
You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.
Charles Stanley
When you become consumed by God’s call on your life, everything will take on new meaning and significance. You will begin to see every facet of your life – including your pain – as a means through which God can work to bring others to Himself.
Howard G. Hendricks
The will of God is found in the Word of God. The more a person grows, the more he begins to think instinctively and habitually from a divine perspective.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has been the work of the Holy Spirit…. The only way to more life is the Holy Spirit. You will not even know that you want more unless He works in you to desire it…. The Spirit of God must come and make the letter alive, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire, and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes…. Prayer is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do without prayer, and we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit.
Francis de Sales
Be patient till your wings are grown. I fear very much that you are too vehement and headlong in your wishes and attempts to fly. You see the beauty of spiritual light and good resolutions; you fancy that you have almost attained, and your ardor is redoubled; you rush forward, but in vain, for your master has chained you to your perch, or else it is that your wings are not grown; and this constant excitement exhausts your strength. You must indeed strive to fly, but gently, without growing eager or restless. You resign yourself, but it is always with a BUT; you want this and that, and you struggle to get it. A simple wish is no hindrance to resignation; but a palpitating heart, a flapping of wings, an agitated will, and endless, quick, restless movements are unquestionably caused by deficient resignation. Do you know what you must do? You must be willing not to fly, since your wings are not yet grown. Do not be so eager with your vain desires, do not even be eager in avoiding eagerness; go on quietly in your path – it is a good path.