You can switch off all the lights, but that won't stop the sun from rising.

God is at work in the mess. That's the message of the Bible. That's why the Bible is not pretty. That's why it's grimy, because God is working in the mess. He's working in the tears.

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.

In every position that I've been in, there have been naysayers who don't believe I'm qualified or who don't believe I can do the work. And I feel a special responsibility to prove them wrong.

But it is in storms that God does his finest work, for it is in storms that God has our keenest attention

Suffering prepares you by training you to trust God and know that He is always at work in your life.

Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting.

The best work usually meets the strongest opposition.

We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes frighten us from our work we shall show ourselves weaklings.

One becomes more interested in a job of work after the first impulse to drop it has been overcome.

Christ gives us all we need to draw nearer to him and enjoy him amid difficulties and blessings. We may get tired, but not despondent. We will be sad, but not hopeless. We will endure pain, but we will not give up. We will enjoy blessings, but not grow proud. We see that our lives do not consist only in what we have, how we feel, or what we have accomplished, but in who we are in Christ. This enables us to stand where we would once have fallen down.

We shouldn't be surprised when suffering and difficulty come our way; in fact, we should probably be surprised when they don't.