When Corrie Ten Boom of
The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization
of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed
her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie's father comforted her with
words of wisdom. "Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you
your ticket?" "Why, just before we get on the train," she replied. "Exactly,"
her father said, "and our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need
things too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of
us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you
need--just in time." - Corrie Ten Bloom
If
any are inclined to despond, because they do not have such patience, let them be
of good courage. It is in the course of our feeble and very imperfect waiting
that God Himself, by His hidden power, strengthens us and works out in us the
patience of the saint s, the patience of Christ Himself. - Andrew Murray
We
say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His
eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out
upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also;
or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him
time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a
sense of certainty that cannot be shaken. - Amy Carmichael
When
ours are interrupted, his are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as
scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which
seem most useless or wasted or unendurable) "toward the goal of true maturity".
- Elisabeth Elliot
He
may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are
not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the
very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may
work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer,
and ripen the receptive condition. - George Macdonald
To
wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust
that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. So, too, is
giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that
God moulds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. The
spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment,
trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our
own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance
toward life in a world preoccupied with control. - Henri J. M. Nouwen
To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to
bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and
even of actual sin. - Thomas Aquinas
Two
things afflictions do when sanctified; one is, they try faith, the truth of it,
and make it appear to be true, genuine, and precious, like gold tried in the
fire, and the other is that they produce patience. Saints, being inured to
afflictions, become by degrees more patient under them. Whence it is good for a
man to bear the yoke in his youth, this phrase may be understood, both of faith,
which being tried by afflictions, produces patience. For where the one is in
exercise, the other is also, and both are necessary under afflictive
providences; and also of afflictions, which try faith, and being sanctified by
the Spirit of God, work patience, which is a fruit of the Spirit. - John Gill
Trials
put religion, and all the graces of which it is composed to proof; the man
that stands in such trials gives proof that his religion is sound, and the
evidence afforded to his own mind induces him to take courage, bear
patiently, and persevere. - Adam Clarke
Have
patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose
courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying
them-- every day begin the task anew. - Francis de Sales
When Corrie Ten Boom of
The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization
of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed
her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie's father comforted her with
words of wisdom. "Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you
your ticket?" "Why, just before we get on the train," she replied. "Exactly,"
her father said, "and our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need
things too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of
us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you
need--just in time." - Corrie Ten Bloom
If
any are inclined to despond, because they do not have such patience, let them be
of good courage. It is in the course of our feeble and very imperfect waiting
that God Himself, by His hidden power, strengthens us and works out in us the
patience of the saint s, the patience of Christ Himself. - Andrew Murray
We
say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His
eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out
upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also;
or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him
time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a
sense of certainty that cannot be shaken. - Amy Carmichael
When
ours are interrupted, his are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as
scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which
seem most useless or wasted or unendurable) "toward the goal of true maturity".
- Elisabeth Elliot
He
may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are
not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the
very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may
work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer,
and ripen the receptive condition. - George Macdonald
To
wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust
that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. So, too, is
giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that
God moulds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. The
spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment,
trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our
own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance
toward life in a world preoccupied with control. - Henri J. M. Nouwen
To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to
bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and
even of actual sin. - Thomas Aquinas
Two
things afflictions do when sanctified; one is, they try faith, the truth of it,
and make it appear to be true, genuine, and precious, like gold tried in the
fire, and the other is that they produce patience. Saints, being inured to
afflictions, become by degrees more patient under them. Whence it is good for a
man to bear the yoke in his youth, this phrase may be understood, both of faith,
which being tried by afflictions, produces patience. For where the one is in
exercise, the other is also, and both are necessary under afflictive
providences; and also of afflictions, which try faith, and being sanctified by
the Spirit of God, work patience, which is a fruit of the Spirit. - John Gill
Trials
put religion, and all the graces of which it is composed to proof; the man
that stands in such trials gives proof that his religion is sound, and the
evidence afforded to his own mind induces him to take courage, bear
patiently, and persevere. - Adam Clarke
Have
patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose
courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying
them-- every day begin the task anew. - Francis de Sales