Quotes About Perseverance

When the flesh or Satan beg time of thee, it is to steal time from thee.

The hound, when he hath lost the scent, hunts backward and so recovers it, and pursues his game with louder cry than ever. Thus, Christian, when thy hope is at a loss for the life to come, and thou questionest thy salvation in another world, then look backward and see what God hath already done for thee in this world.

The saints are oft feeding their hopes on the carcass of their slain fears.

the Christian who seems to be so overmatched, is yet so unconquerable, II Cor. 12:9; James 5:11.

Fear not what you can suffer, only be careful for what you {do} suffer.

An impatient soul in affliction is a bedlam in chains,

All these instances, and many more in Scripture, do evince, that nothing short of solid grace, and a prin ciple of divine life in the soul, will persevere. How forward soever formalists and flighty professors are to promise themselves hopes of reaching heaven, they will find it too long a step for their short-breathed souls to attain.

Great and small, minister and people, all must wrestle; not one part of Christ's army in the field, and the other at ease in their quarters, where no enemy comes. Here

By 'praying always,' saith he, he exhorts us to pray in prosperity as well as adversity; and not then to intermit the practice of this duty because not driven to it by such outward pres sing necessities.

The believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life: his work and his life must go off the stage together.

O, this persevering is a hard word! this taking up the cross daily, this praying always, this watching night and day, and never laying aside our clothes and armour, I mean indulging ourselves, to remit and unbend in our holy waiting on God, and walking with God. This sends many sorrowful away from Christ, yet this is a saint's duty, to make religion his every-day work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other.

Of this psalm Luther would say, in times of great confusion in the church, 'Let us sing the six and fortieth psalm, in spite of the devil and all his instruments.

They use faith as an eye but not as a hand; they look for victory to drop from heaven upon their heads, but do not fight to obtain it.

O Christian, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions. He that is a beggar and a modest one with out doors, will command the house if let in. Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn, the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance.

Therefore, I beseech you, look to your armour. David would not fight in armour he had not tried, though it was a king's.

But 'the patience of hope,' we are now treating of, is a sober grace, and abides as long as hope lasts; when hope is lively and active, then it floats, yea even danceth aloft the waters of affliction, as a tight sound ship doth in a tempestuous sea; but when hope springs a leak, then the billows break into the Christian's bosom, and he sinks apace, till hope, with much labour at the pump of the promise, clears the soul again.

Indeed there is no duty in the Christian's whole course of walking with God, or acting for God but is lined with many difficulties, which shoot like enemies through the hedges at him, while he is marching towards heaven: so that he is put to dispute every inch of ground as he goes.

First.—The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet.

To be a minister,' said Luther, 'is nothing else but to derive the world's wrath and fury upon himself.

Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of waves.

Every soul clad with this armour of God shall stand and persevere; or thus, true grace can never be vanquished.

Dost thou not betray some of this spiritual pride working in thee? O, if thou couldst pray without wandering, walk without limping, believe without wavering, then thou couldst rejoice and walk cheerfully.

God himself tells us we have 'need of patience;' he means great store of patience, 'that after we have done the will of God, we may receive the promise,' Heb. 10:36. And if of patience, then of hope; because patience bears all on hope's back. Now,

Therefore labour to be sound rather than brave Christians.