Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering Quotes

“But how much happier will be the man, when he gets to heaven, who has it said of him, “He will shine like the stars forever and ever, because he was wise and turned many to righteousness.” It is always my greatest joy to believe, that if I should enter heaven before many of you, I will see heaven’s gates open, and you will fly by me, looking at me with a smile on your face, and proceed to God’s throne, where you will worship and adore him, before flying back to me, and though I do not know you, you will grab my hand, and if there were tears in heaven, I would surely weep, as you say to me: “Brother, it was from your lips that I heard the gospel. It was your voice that first warned me about my sin. Here I am and you are the means God used to save me.” And as the gates open again and again, more will come in. Souls redeemed and more souls redeemed. And for each one of these a star, another gem in the crown of glory. Each one another honor and another note in the song of praise. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” “‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Have you ever heard someone pray in whom God had put his own strength? You have probably heard some of us poor puny souls pray, but have you ever heard a person pray that God had made into a giant? If you have, you will say it is a mighty thing to hear a person like that in prayer. I have seen him as if he had grabbed the angel like Jacob and tried to wrestle him to the ground. I have seen him slip now and then while he was wrestling, but, like a giant, he has regained his footing and seemed to throw the angel to the ground. I have seen that person seize the throne of mercy and declare, “Lord, I will not let you go unless you bless me.” I have seen him, when heaven’s gates have apparently been locked and barred, go up to them, and say, “Gates of heaven, open wide in Jesus’ name;” and I have seen the gates fly open before him, as if the man were God himself; because he is armed with God Almighty’s strength. I have seen that man, in prayer, discover some great mountain in his way; and he prayed it down, until it was only a molehill. He has beaten the hills and made them like dust by the power of his strength.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“And so my Master, who is the great ark of salvation, did not come into this world to save only a few little sinners. “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.” Look on him there. See him on the cross, in extreme agony, enduring countless griefs and torments, and sweating in agony, all because of his love for you who were his enemies. Trust him. Trust him, because there is hope, there is restoration”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“the world should ever return to barbarism and darkness, if instead of the constant progress for which we sometimes hope our hopes are crushed, let us be calm and content knowing that “at evening time there shall be light,” that the end of the world’s history will be glorious. No matter how red with blood, how black with sin the world may become, she will one day be as pure and perfect as when she was created. The day will come when the darkness of this poor planet will break out in the brilliance she once had. The Lord will yet cause his name to be praised “from the rising of the sun to its setting”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“In the same way, there is also a period in the spiritual life, when sin works to drag the sinner back to the life from which it has recently escaped. Like armies ready for battle, all the sinner’s past iniquities hurry after him and overtake him in a place where there is no escape. The poor fugitive wants to escape, but he cannot. What must he do? Remember, that is when Moses cried to the Lord. When nothing else could be found to provide protection to the unhappy slaves, when the Red Sea was in front of them, and the mountains shut them in on either side, and an angry enemy pursued them, there was one road that was not blocked. It was the King’s highway leading up to the throne; it was the way to their God. They began to travel that road immediately, lifting up their hearts in humble prayer to God, trusting that he would deliver them.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Is it not true? Believer, you will never prefer man to God, will you? Would you prefer to depend on an imperfect, changeable man’s promise rather than to rest on the promises of the unchangeable God? You would not dare say that, though I suspect you have acted as if you would. I am afraid our unbelief is such, that we would sometimes prefer the defective arm of flesh to the Almighty arm of God. What a disgrace this is! But when we are thinking straight, we must acknowledge that God’s “I am with you,” is better than the kindest assurance of the best of friends.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“God’s providence is always on time! You and I make appointments, and miss them by half-an-hour. But God has never missed an appointment yet. God is never early, though we often wish he were. But he is never late, no, not by one tick of the clock. When it was time for the people of Israel to leave Egypt, all the Pharaohs in the pyramids, if they had risen to life again, could not have kept them in slavery another half-minute. When the Lord said, “Let my people go,” it was time and go they did. All the kings and princes of the earth are under the rule of God’s providence. He can move them just as he pleases. God can move everyone on earth and the angels in heaven according to his will and pleasure, like the puppeteer pulls his strings and moves his puppets. And now, you who are trembling, why are you afraid? “Fear not, I am with you.” All the mysterious actions of God work for our good. You who are in trouble; touch that string again and see if God’s harp does not play sweet music.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“We believe in the providence of God. We believe he is always at work behind the scenes. But we do not believe in it half enough. Remember that the all-powerful God has servants everywhere, set in their places at every point along the road. In the old days of the Pony Express, there were always relays of swift horses ready to carry the mail onward. It is wonderful how God has his relays of providential agents; how when he is finished with one, there is always another ready to take his place.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Child of God, your greatest protection in all your trials is a Man. Not Moses, but Jesus. Not in the servant, but in the Master. He is praying for you. Just as Moses did for the people of Israel, Jesus is interceding for you, unseen and unheard by you. If you could see him in the dim distance, and catch the words of his voice, and see his heart as it speaks for you, you would take comfort. God hears that Man when he prays! He can overcome every difficulty. He does not divide the Red Sea with a rod, but a cross. He uses a pillar of cloud of forgiving grace to blind the eyes of your enemy and keep them at a distance.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Christian! There is no sweeter pillow than providence. When God’s secret way seems harmful, continue to believe, lay it under your head, because you may be assured that is where your comfort is. Child of God! There is hope for you. That great trouble, that has been placed in your way in the early part of your journey, is planned by love, the same love that will step in as your protector.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“How sweet are the Lord’s secret ways to a child of God when he can think about them. He can look out into this world, and say, “However great my troubles are, they are not as great as my Father’s power. However difficult my circumstances may be, yet all things around me are working together for good.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“The children of Israel were very faint of heart, they were cowards. They no sooner saw the Egyptians than they began to cry out. And when they viewed the Red Sea in front of them, they complained against their deliverer. Their biggest enemy was themselves. A faint heart is the worst enemy a Christian can have. He never needs to be afraid of the storm while he keeps his faith steady and fixes his anchor deep in the rock. But when the hand of faith is trembling, or the eye of faith is weak, it will go hard with us.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“I do not know if your experience will be like mine, but I can say this, the worst difficulty I ever met with, or I think I can ever meet with, happened very shortly after my conversion to God. And, generally speaking, you should expect some great Red Sea straight ahead of you very soon after you have been brought to know and love the Lord Jesus. You will hardly know how to get through this trial.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“And it came to pass that the Lord led the people of Israel about, through the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea, until they encamped at the sea, in front of Baal-zephon. The steep mountains on either side shut them in. Pharoah hears about it. He approaches them to attack them. The people of Israel are in danger of losing their lives and are terribly afraid. This is usually the case with the believer. When he is converted to Christ, he marches out of worldly Egypt and begins his spiritual journey. He says to himself, “Now I will always be happy.” He has a light heart and an eager spirit. His chains are off and he no longer feels the lash of his conscience. “Now,” says he, “I may have a short life, but it will be a happy one.”  “A few more rolling years at most,
Will land me on fair Canaan’s coast.” God himself sent the Israelites a great trial. There was the Red Sea in front of them. Now, it was not an enemy that put the sea there, it was God. Therefore we may conclude that the Red Sea represents some great and stressful trial from God. The Lord is sure to place some obstacle in the path of every newborn child of God to test his faith, and to test the sincerity of his trust in God.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“You may have heard the story of that respected martyr who was in the habit of always saying, “All things work together for good.” When he was seized by the officers of Queen Mary, to be taken to the stake to be burned, he was treated so roughly on the way that he broke his leg. The soldiers mocked him and said, “All things work together for good, do they? How will your broken leg work for your good?” “I don’t know,” he said, “how it will, but I know it will work for my good, and you will see it is so.” Strange to say, it proved true that it was for his good. His broken leg delayed his trip to London by a day or so, and he arrived to the city in time to hear that Elizabeth had been proclaimed queen, and so he escaped the stake because of his broken leg. He turned round upon the men who carried him, as they thought, to his death, and said to them, “Now will you believe that all things work together for good?”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“The Christian understands the word “good” in a different way. By “good” he understands spiritual good.  “Ah!” he says, “I do not call gold good, but I call faith good! I do not think it is always for my good to increase in wealth, but I know it is good to grow in grace. I do not know that it is for my good that I should be respected and be accepted by society, but I know that it is for my good that I should walk humbly with my God.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“We must also understand the word “together” in another sense. “All things work together for good.” That is to say, none of them work separately. I remember a preacher putting it this way: “All things work together for good; but perhaps, any one of those ‘all things’ might destroy us if taken alone.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Do not be surprised that we must also work. If we have to work, let us remember, this is the world’s week of work. The 6,000 years of continual labor, and toil, and trouble, have happened not only to us, but to all of God’s great universe. “The whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Let us not be unwilling to do our work. If all things are working, let us work, too. Work while it is day, because “night is coming, when no one can work.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“We know that all things work. Look around you. All things work. Work is the opposite of idleness. The idle man folds his hands to rest. He slumbers on the bed of laziness. But he is an exception to God’s rule, because except for him all things work.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Still, nothing will help unless there is plenty of prayer. We need to pray that God will give power to the words he has given us and will reward our obedience to them with much success. Oh, brothers and sisters, prayer is most important for us, because we have no power within ourselves. It is wonderful what prayer can do for any of us.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“And it seems to me I can, it seems to me I can open the little wicket gate, and cry, “There is hope!” The one who said there is no hope is a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies. There is hope because Jesus died. There is hope everywhere except in the infernal lake of fire.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Of all the things in the world to be dreaded, despair is the chief. When a man is in the depths of despair, he is ready for all sorts of sins. When fear discourages him action is dangerous. But when fear has weakened him and his conscience is powerless to guide him, the vultures circle him waiting for their prey. As long as a man has hope for himself you may have hope for him.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“You may not have all you could wish for, but you still have more than you deserve. Your circumstances are not what they might be, but they are still not as bad as the conditions others find themselves in. Your unbelief makes you forget that if poverty weighs you down you still have your health. And if both health and financial security have vanished, you are still a child of God and your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” --John 14:1 It is the easiest thing in the world in times of difficulty to let the heart be troubled. It is very natural for us to give up and drift with the current, to feel that it is useless to fight against such a “sea of troubles.” Our tendency is to be passive and say, “If I must be ruined, so be it.” Hopeless idleness is easy enough, especially for evil, rebellious spirits who are willing to get into further mischief and have a reason to quarrel with God even more, to blame him for what is happening to them. Our Lord does not want us to be rebellious like this. He encourages us to be of good courage in the worst possible situations.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“However, before long, you find it has always happened that the low tide returns. The ocean of grace seemed to recede; the Church was driven back by either persecution or internal decay. Instead of winning against the wickedness of the world, the wickedness of the world overcame her. Where righteousness flowed like the waves of the sea, there was the black mud and muck of the filthiness of mankind. The Church was in mourning. She was like the Israelites in captivity when they sat down and wept by the rivers of Babylon as they remembered their former glory and wept over their present emptiness. It has always been this way for the Church. She advances, retreats, stands still for a while, and then moves forward once more, only to fall back again. The entire history of the Church has been a story of marches forward and then quick retreats.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” If that joy ceases, you become weak and are very likely to turn aside. Little-Faiths have many nights and few days, very long winters and very short summers, many unhappy cries and very few shouts of joy. They often play the music of mourning, but very seldom play the music of gladness. Perhaps the only way most people can get their faith increased is by great trouble.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Unbelief is one of those things that you cannot destroy. Bunyan says, “It has as many lives as a cat.” You may kill it over and over again but it still lives. It is one of those nasty weeds that sleep in the soil even after it has been burned; it only needs a little encouragement to grow again.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Little-Faith is just as certain to get to heaven as Great-Faith. When Jesus Christ counts up his Jewels at the last day, he will have little pearls as well as great ones. A diamond is precious no matter how small it is, because it is a diamond. And faith, no matter how small it is, if it is true faith, has a place in Christ’s crown. Little-Faith is always certain of heaven, because the name of Little-Faith is written in the book of eternal life. Little Faith was chosen by God before the creation of the world. Little-Faith was bought with the blood of Christ and he cost just as much as Great-Faith.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“When faith begins in the soul, it is simply looking to Jesus, and perhaps even then there are so many clouds of doubts and so much difficulty in seeing, that it needs the light of the Spirit to shine on the cross before it can even see it. After faith has grown a little, it goes from looking to Christ to coming to Christ. The person who stood at a distance and looked to the cross eventually gains enough courage and confidence to run up to the cross. Some, however, do not run, but need to be pulled before they can even crawl to the cross. And even after they stand up they can only limp as they come closer to Christ the Savior. At that point, faith goes a little farther until it can grab hold of Christ; it begins to see more of his excellent qualities and devotes itself to him little by little. Faith becomes more and more convinced that he is a real Christ and a real Savior, and right for itself. And when faith has come that far, it goes further and leans on Christ. Faith leans on its Beloved and casts all its anxieties, sorrows, and griefs on that blessed shoulder, and allows all its sins to be swallowed up in the great red sea of the Savior’s blood, Faith can go even further. Having seen Christ and run toward him, and grabbed hold of him, and leaned on him, faith humbly, but courageously lays claim to all that Christ is and all the he has done. Faith trusts in these alone and claims all of this to itself. Faith rises to full assurance. Nothing this side of heaven brings more joy than this.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering

“Depression so frightening that I hope none of you will ever experience such severe misery. But I always get back to this, I know I trust Christ. I rely only in him. If he falls I will fall with him. But if he does not fall, I will not. Because he lives, I will also live. I spring back up and fight my depression and my discouragement, and I gain the victory. You may do that too. You must do it. There is no other way to escape from it. In your most depressed season, your joy and peace come through believing.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Peace and Purpose in Trial and Suffering