Pain can be a professor theology. Pain can be a marriage counselor. Pain can be a life coach. Nothing gets our full attention like pain. It breaks down false idols and purifies false motives. It reveals where we need to heal, where we need to grow. It refocuses priorities like nothing else. And pain ins part and parcel of God's sanctification process in our lives.

you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same

We tend to view the goal as the goal, but in God's economy, the process is the goal. It's not about what we're doing at all; it's about who we're becoming in the process.

When we suffer, God empowers us to face the worst and become our best.

You may have had unfair things happen to you, but the depth of your pain is an indication of the height of your future.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

I say the Gospel is frail because we are frail.

He is wonderful in His Holy One because He brings Him into tribulation and thus crowns Him.

And the human mind endures misfortunes of any kind more easily than prosperity and abundance, as the German proverb puts it: "Strong legs are needed to be able to endure good days.

In short, those of us who are in the church are in the vale of tears.

These two words, grace and peace, include all that belong to Christianity. Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The

The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, and to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope.