Evelyn Underhill
The spiritual life is a stern choice. It is not a consoling retreat from the difficulties of existence, but an invitation to enter fully into that difficult existence, and there apply the Charity of God, and bear the cost.
Cyril
What then? Some one will say. We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there no salvation left? We have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been blinded: May we not recover our sight? We have become crippled: Can we never walk upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise again? He that woke Lazarus who was four days dead and already stank, shall He not, O man, much more easily raise thee who art alive? He who shed his precious Blood for us, shall Himself deliver us from sin. Let us not despair of ourselves, brethren; let us not abandon ourselves to a hopeless condition. For it is a fearful thing not to believe in a hope of repentance.
Francis Frangipane
We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress.
http://frangipane.org/
Charles H. Brent
Pray with your intelligence. Bring things to God that you have thought out and think them out again with Him. That is the secret of good judgment. Repeatedly place your pet opinions and prejudices before God. He will surprise you by showing you that the best of them need refining and some the purification of destruction.
Frederick Brotherton ( F. B. ) Meyer
God is down in front. He is in the tomorrows. It is tomorrow that fills men with dread. God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.
Robert MacColl Adams
If all you have found [in Christianity] is advantage, whether it is fun or profit or security, then you haven't started following Him yet. His way is the way of the Cross. The world can be very hard on those it hates. If it is not hard on you, perhaps it sees nothing in you to hate. But then it doesn't see Jesus in you, for it hates Jesus with an undying hatred. While your way is still all fun, all easy, all jolly, it is only your way: when you turn from it to follow His way, it will cost. It may cost you everything you have. That is what it cost Him.
A. W. Tozer
I do not preach any new truth. I do not have any new doctrine.... We must have a revival that will mean purity of heart as a normal standard for everybody. We must be clean people, and not only clean outside.
http://www.awtozerclassics.com/
John Wesley
If... a doubt should at any time arise in your mind concerning what you are going to expend, either on yourself or any part of your family, you have an easy way to remove it. Calmly and seriously inquire,
1. In expending this, am I acting according to my character? Am I acting herein, not as a proprietor, but as a steward of my Lord's goods?
2. Am I doing this in obedience to his Word? In what Scripture does he require me so to do?
3. Can I offer up this action, this expense, as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ?
You will seldom need anything more to remove any doubt which arises on this head; but by this consideration you will receive clear light as to the way wherein you should go.
http://wesley.nnu.edu/
Ole Kristian O. Hallesby
I do not think that we should look upon...painful experiences too pessimistically. Surely they are more profitable than we think at the time we are going through the anguish connected with them. But if they are to be of any benefit to us, we must, in the first place, be truthful and not begin to practice deception, that is, excuse and defend our slovenly prayer life. We must admit our weakness in prayer, admit that we are faced with a problem which cannot be solved by our own efforts.
http://www.booksofthebible.com/p1398.html
John of Kronstadt
Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence.
http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/johnkr_e.htm