Henri J. M. Nouwen
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly.
Evelyn Underhill
"He that believeth shall not make haste." Isaiah 28:16 That is to say, he won't get rattled or hustled; he won't let time get on top of him or dictate to him. Doesn't that speak to all of us of something which deep down we wish were true of ourselves? Time, the enemy... How often do you hear people saying, - how often do you hear yourself saying, "Oh, I haven't got time!" I haven't got time... No, we haven't, for time has got us, or most of us.
William Law
Whenever a man allows himself to have anxieties, fears, or complaints, he must consider his behavior as either a denial of the wisdom of God or as a confession that he is out of his will. To be always in a thankful state of heart before God is not to be considered a high plane of spirituality but rather the normal attitude of one who believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to his purpose."
http://www.ccel.org/l/law/
Dutch Sheets
You can do more than pray AFTER you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray UNTIL you have prayed... Prayer is striking the winning blow... service is gathering up the results.
http://www.dutchsheets.org/
Luis Palau
It's bad when you fail morally. It's worse when you don't repent.
http://www.palau.org/
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.
http://www.chesterton.org/
Claxton Monro
Our Christian experience must agree with the Bible. We will be taught by the Bible and fed by the Bible. But we do not believe in Christ because He is in the Bible: we believe in the Bible because Christ is in us!
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful "in general." It's very strange. It's a little like being married in general.
http://www.calvinseminary.edu/
Martin Luther
For what harm can come to you even if the world is most hostile to you, persecutes and torments you? You still know that you have Christ the Lord as your Friend, and not only Him but also the Father, who assures you and testifies through the mouth of His Son that He loves and cherishes you because of your faith in Christ, and your confession of Him. Now, since you have this Lord on your side, together with all the angels and saints, why should you worry about or fear the world's ire?
John Bunyan
[Faith] doth not, as doth unbelief and ignorance, show us all things out of order; putting darkness for light, and bitter for sweet; but will set every thing in its proper place before our eyes; God and Christ shall be with it, the chiefest good, the most lovely and amiable; a heavenly life shall be of greater esteem, and more desirable, than all the treasures of Egypt! Righteousness and sanctification will be the thing after which it will most vehemently press; because it seeth not only death and damnation as the fruits of sin, but sin also in itself, distinct from the punishment belonging to it, a detestable, horrible, and odious thing.