David Joel Hamilton

We don’t want mere information about God. We want him. We want a deeply intimate, experiential encounter with the living God. For this reason, Job resisted his friends’ pat answers and their religious platitudes. Amidst his pain, he passionately pursued God with hard-hitting questions until he reached a relational revelation; until he could say to God, “I have seen you with my own eyes.” This kind of knowledge is truly transformational. This kind of knowledge is not accidental. It comes to those who – like Job – earnestly yearn for God. Job’s hunger for God was unquenchable, his pursuit of God was unstoppable. He declared his undying hope, “I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes” (Job 19:26-27).

 

Elisabeth Elliot

Even when we’ve prayerfully and carefully sought God’s guidance, “it does not follow that right guidance will be vindicated by a trouble-free course thereafter” (p. 239). Numerous examples in the Bible show people falling into trouble who were directly where God led them: the Israelites between Pharaoh and the Red Sea; the disciples in a boat in a storm, a boat that Jesus sent them off in; Paul in prison, Jesus Himself on the cross, just to name a few. An easy path doesn’t always mean we’re on the right road: a troubled path doesn’t necessarily mean we are on the wrong one.

Bill Johnson

God did not bring the man after His heart straight from the pasture to the palace. Incredibly, David did not assume the throne until 10-13 years after Samuel had anointed him to be king. In those interim years, David endured more difficulty, persecution, and rejection than many of us face in a lifetime. He probably didn’t expect it to take so long to become king.

Ann Voskamp

It is in the dark that God is passing by. The bridge and our lives shake not because God has abandoned, but the exact opposite: God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is the holiest ground, the glory passing by. In the blackest, God is closest, at work, forging His perfect and right will. Though it is black and we can’t see and our world seems to be free-falling and we feel utterly alone, Christ is most present to us.