Aly Jacobs

“Our hope does not rest in our love for Jesus, but in his love for us. Our love at the best is variable in its moods. To-day it glows with warmth and joy, and we say we could die for Christ; to-morrow, in some depression, we question whether we really love him at all, our feeling responds so feebly to his name. A peace that depends on our loving Christ is as variable as our own consciousness. But when it is Christ's love for us that is our dependence, our peace is undisturbed by any earthly changes.”
― J.R. Miller, Personal Friendships of Jesus

“When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; but when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.1”
― John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry

“A coward lives by his feelings. They dominate him. He’s emotionally up and down, depending on how he feels that day. The coward is not as concerned about what is true as he is about what is easy. He will gladly exchange truth for comfort. He’s always taking the safe path, the easy way out. He backs away from challenges. He is always hedging his bets. He’s a fence rider. He tries to live for both Christ and himself at the same time, but when there is a choice to be made, he chooses himself over Christ every time. When opposed, he compromises the truth. The courageous person lives by principle. His feelings may go up and down, but he doesn’t allow them to control his choices. In fact, he often has to act despite his feelings. That’s what we see in Paul. Paul”
― Wayne A. Mack, Courage: Fighting Fear with Fear

“Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo . . . the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ. MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE1”
― Eugene H. Peterson, Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best