Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future.  Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment "as to the Lord".  It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for.  The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.

-C.S. Lewis
Learning in War Time

All around us there is a world of sin and sorrow, and Satan is there.  But remember, Christ is on the throne; Christ is stronger; Christ has conquered; and Christ will conquer.

-Andrew Murray
Absolute Surrender

I know of no more steadying hope on which to focus my mind when circumstances tempt me to wonder why God doesn't "do something".  He is always doing something — the very best thing, the thing we ourselves would certainly choose if we knew the end from the beginning."

-Elisabeth Elliot

"…there is no use in trying to engraft an opposite nature on one's own.  What I am, that I must be, except as God changes me into His own image.  And everything brings me back to that, as my supreme desire.  I see more and more that I must be myself what I want my children to be, and that I cannot make myself over even for their sakes.  This must be His work, and I wonder that it goes on so slowly; that all the disappointments, sorrows, sicknesses I have passed through, have left me still selfish, still full of imperfections!"

-Elizabeth Prentiss
Stepping Heavenward

Trouble shall do me no real harm when the Lord is with me;
rather it shall bring me much benefit,
like the file that clears away the rust but does not destroy the metal.

~Charles Spurgeon

Life is mine and death is mine for Christ is mine.

-C. H. Spurgeon

"Through God we will do valiantly,
For it is He who shall tread down our enemies."
Psalm 60:12

"…the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was loveable, but because it was His nature to do so.  

Now He commands me to show the same love to others…"

-Oswald Chambers

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Call Back

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back–
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And, if perchance, faith's light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest's roots were torn;
That when the heavens thundered and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you when the very air was still.

O friend, call back and tell me, for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us, and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you'll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you'll say He saw you through the night's sin-darkened sky,
If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back–
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.

-Author Unknown
taken from The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot

While we are seeking one mercy that we have not,
we must not be unmindful of another that we have.

-Spurgeon