God's chastening love!
(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)
"Lord, he whom You love is sick!" John 11:3
Richard Baxter:
"Your afflictions may be sharp, but they are short. Your deliverance will be eternal."
"Our sufferings are but God's tools to carve His image more clearly upon us."
"Affliction opens our ears to the voice of God, and shuts our hearts to the allurements of the world."
William Bridge:
"Every affliction is a messenger from God, teaching and correcting the soul for its eternal good."
"The worst that God ever does to His children, is to whip them to Heaven."
"The waters of affliction, are often the means by which we are carried nearer to Christ."
John Bunyan:
"In times of affliction, we discover the sufficiency of Christ and the shallowness of the world."
Thomas Brooks:
"The promises of God, shine brightest in the furnace of affliction."
Jeremiah Burroughs:
"The bitter cup of affliction, is sweetened by the pierced hand that gives it."
"Sanctified afflictions, are spiritual promotions."
"The burdens God lays on us, are designed to press us closer to Himself."
Stephen Charnock:
"God's greatest mercy, is sometimes wrapped in His sharpest judgments."
"Affliction is God's flail, to separate the chaff from the wheat."
"In the furnace of affliction God burns away the dross of self-reliance, and reveals the gold of His sufficiency."
"Afflictions drive the soul to its knees, where it finds the richest treasures of grace."
John Flavel:
"The believer's afflictions are God's pruning, not His lopping. They are to make them fruitful, not to destroy them."
"God's strokes are strokes of love, meant to awaken our souls and draw us closer to Him."
William Gurnall:
"The greatest honor God can put on a soul, is to place it in the school of affliction."
Matthew Henry:
"Trials are sent to teach us what we are, to humble us, and to draw us closer to God."
"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces."
"The sharper the affliction, the sweeter the promise of God's sustaining grace."
Thomas Manton:
"Crosses are the ladders that lead to Heaven."
"When affliction humbles us, it clears the eye of faith to see God's hand more distinctly."
"The furnace of affliction refines the believer to reflect the brightness of Heaven."
Cotton Mather:
"God chooses the fire of affliction to purify the gold of His people."
"Gold shines brightest when it is beaten; so do the graces of the soul shine under the hammer of affliction."
"The blows of affliction are blessings in disguise, for they strike away the sins that cling to us."
"God's afflictions are not to ruin us, but to refine us--that we might reflect His glory."
John Owen:
"Affliction is a stormy wind, by which God drives His people faster toward Himself."
"The storms of affliction, drive the soul to the secure harbor of Christ's love."
"Every affliction carries a message from God, and reveals His intention for our eternal good."
"Afflictions reveal what is in our hearts and show us our need for God's grace."
Samuel Rutherford:
"Grace grows best in winter."
"Our crosses are ladders, that bring us nearer to Heaven."
Richard Sibbes:
"As the winter prepares the earth for the spring; so affliction prepares the soul for glory."
"God's rod is a pencil to draw Christ's image more distinctly upon us."
"God's afflictions are His love tokens; they are sent to heal, not to harm."
John Trapp:
"God's correction is His seal of sonship. He chastens us, because He loves us."
Thomas Watson:
"Affliction is the furnace where God refines His gold."
"The sharper the medicine, the greater the cure; affliction is God's elixer for the soul."
"Affliction is a bitter root, but it bears sweet fruit."
"God's rod, is a remedy to cure us of our spiritual diseases."