Look back, believer: think of your doubting God

when He has been so faithful to you -

think of your foolish outcry of "Not so, my Father,"

when He crossed His hands in affliction to give you the larger blessing;

think of the many times when you have read His providences in the dark,

misinterpreted His dispensations, and groaned out,

"All these things are against me,"

when they are all working together for your good!

Think how often you have chosen sin because of its pleasure,

when indeed, that pleasure was a root of bitterness to you!

Surely if we know our own heart we must plead guilty

to the indictment of a sinful folly;

and conscious of this "folishness,"

we must make David's consequent resolve our own -

"Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel."

-- Charles Spurgeon --

"Man has a claim on God,

a divine claim for any pain, want, disappointment, or misery

that will help to make him what he ought to be.

 He has a claim to be punished,

and to be spared not one pang that may urge him toward repentance;

yea, he has a claim to be compelled to repent;

to be hedged in on every side,

to have one after another of the strong, sharp-toothed sheep-dogs

of the Great Shepherd sent after him,

to thwart him in any desire,

foil him in any plan,

frustrate him of any hope,

until he comes to see at length that nothing will ease his pain,

nothing make life a thing worth having,

but the presence of the living God within him;

that nothing is good but the will of God;

nothing noble enough for the desire of the heart of man

but oneness with the eternal.

For this God must make him yield his very being,

that He himself may enter in and dwell with him."

-- George MacDonald --