Quote of the Day

"Why am I disposed to faint, or complain under many various afflictions? Because my mind is not yet cast into the mould of the gospel. Does the Scripture mean anything or does it not, when, from beginning to end, it clearly and fully speaks not only of the trials, temptations, and sufferings of God's people but of the blessedness of such as are thus tried? Nay, I know, from happy experience, that 'it is good for me that I have been afflicted.' And yet I am often ready to say, 'It is enough,' as if I were wiser than God, or as if I would be treated differently from the rest of His children, or as if the things I read of in the Bible were written as a mere history rather than as what must be wrought into my own experience. It is I, myself, that must 'count it all joy' when I 'fall into diverse temptations.' It is I that must 'reckon the sufferings of this present time as not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall follow.' It is I, along with Moses, that must 'endure, as seeing Him who is invisible' and with the very same faith as he did - substantially, actually, steadily. 'Lord, increase my faith!' Enable me to honor Thee by adding to the too few who suffer cheerfully, glorifying my Father which is in heaven. But this I can only do by the constant influences of Thy Holy Spirit."

                            - Sarah Hawkes in Seasons of the Heart