Great faith believes in God even when he plays his hand close to his vest, never showing all his cards. He has his reasons for doing so. God wants to increase your “measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). He does this whenever he conceals a matter, and you trust him nevertheless!
— Joni Eareackson Tada, Pearls of Great Price, February 19 entry
The core of God’s plan is to rescue us from sin and self-centeredness. Suffering — especially the chronic kind — is God’s choicest tool to accomplish this. It is a long process. But it means I can accept my paralysis as a chronic condition. When I broke my neck, it wasn’t a jigsaw puzzle I had to solve fast or a quick jolt to get me back on track. My paralyzing accident was the beginning of a lengthy process of becoming like Christ.
— Joni Eareckson Tada, Pearls of Great Price, February 17 entry
The ultimate goal of forgiveness, just as the ultimate goal of our whole lives should be, is to bring glory and honor to God.
Forgiveness in the life of a believer showcases the astounding, redemptive heart of God. It puts on display the riches of His abundant mercy and His amazing grace, for all to see….
Forgiveness is not just an act of obedience for obedience’s sake. Yes, we are commanded to forgive. And yes, we who have been forgiven so much certainly have no right to be debt collectors. But more than an obligation, forgiveness is a high calling — an opportunity to be part of something eternal, to shower back our gratitude to the One who forgave us everything….
Think of it as an offering, a sacrifice, a love gift to God . . . for Him and Him alone. If He adds to the blessing by causing our forgiveness to be of help to us or others, so much the better. But to know that He is pleased and praised — that is reason and reward enough.
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 214-215
God is so amazingly generous. I ask, he gives. Just like that. I worry; he counsels me in the night. He molds my very heart in his hands and instructs me in his ways.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 255
Today, though, I choose to worship a God whose justice is beyond my understanding in all particulars but this one that my children have taught me:Â God is not mean.
God gave me a husband who loves me and children who are not horribly sick and a job I like and a mother-in-law who passes on her cars to us for their bluebook prices and, two Sundays ago, eight newborn Labrador puppies who are just now opening their eyes…. God hears my prayers and answers them in my best interest, every one of them, although I sometimes don’t recognize that he has or agree with him about what my best interest might be….
God is not mean. He chose me, despite my own frequent meanness. He chose me when there were better people. Better mothers. Better writers. Better Christians. Better cooks, probably. There are so many others that he could have chosen, others that I hope he will choose, every one of them. And after he chose me he has kept on choosing me: rewarding me, reassuring me, burying me in blessings.
Our God, I have learned from my daughters, is the God of promises — promises of healing and happiness and all good things — for those who look forward to their own fulfillment. Promises available not only in the Word of God but in all creation, in newborn puppies with their eyes still closed and ditches and frothed milk and silly games. In children. In our ability to imagine heaven.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 229-232
And so, I believe I’m wrong to expect disasters, which isn’t to say they won’t happen. But if they do, they won’t be payback, but rather — I try to believe this — new opportunities for God to show his very particular love for me.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 226
Most of all, though, I need what I never realized I had all along: a perfect Parent in addition to my fallible earthly ones. A Father who honors me and loves me, despite my failings, and takes my troubles seriously. A Father entirely worthy of my honor.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 195
When Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, Paul had just helped murder Stephen and possibly many other Christians. But Jesus merely said to Paul that the way he had chosen was difficult, and to follow him instead. Jesus didn’t discuss Paul’s mistakes. Nor did the father of the prodigal son discuss his boy’s “sins against heaven.” God doesn’t dwell on our errors. Do we know better than God what to think about? All any mistake requires is correction.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 138
He knows your heart, dear one. He has not left you alone. And by trusting in His sovereign wisdom, goodness, and love, you, too, may one day see the sweet restoration of everything you’ve prayed for.
But even if not, you will have found a refuge in His will and in His care — a blessed place that is reached only by those who trust His heart — and keep trusting it even when the darkness closes in around them.
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 165
Our distress over money doesn’t come so much from a lack of it as from our belief that it can protect us. And yet, no bank account can be fat enough nor health potion strong enough to protect anyone. The world is a place of fear and danger. You can feel safe, but only in God. As our place in God’s heart dawns on us, we see money as one of the world’s more amusing preoccupations, and we become more generous with the little of it we have.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 25