Your pain could be God prying open your life and heart to remove a gift of His that you've been on to more dearly than Him.

The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.

To have divine favor on your life means you'll attract extraordinary opposition

However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified.

There's nothing like suffering to reveal how small and needy you are. Pain has the remarkable capacity to reveal the weakness of the things you're leaning on to make life worth living.

Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes.

It is not what happens to you in life that makes the difference. It is how you react to each circumstance you encounter that determines the result. Every human being in the same situation has the possibilities of choosing how he will react - either positively or negatively.

A biblical theology of persecution creates a framework for understanding God's sovereign purpose in allowing the evil dominions of darkness to inflict suffering on His children.

The idea that spiritual growth begins with discomfort is a fact many church members and church leaders have been unwilling or unable to embrace.

Almost everybody in the neighborhood had "troubles," frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had "complications." To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death warrant. People struggled on for years with "troubles," but they almost always succumbed to "complications."

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.