There is no better school for a Christian!

Charles Spurgeon

(Be sure to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

Job 1:21, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD!"

That is the way to be at peace with God--to be thankful at all times.
Thank God for your mercies, and for your miseries.
Thank Him for your gains, and for your losses.
Thank Him for your enjoyments and pleasures, and also for your aches and pains.
Thank Him for every hard thing that comes from Him, for there is as much love in the hard things as in the pleasant things. God is as kind when He uses His chastening rod, as when He gives a kiss.

I owe more than I can tell to . .
  God's hammer and the anvil,
  His fire and flood,
  His pruning knife and the threshing floor.

The Lord's dealings with me have been full of mercy, though they have often been painful.
I have learned more from my trials, than from my prosperity.
I have been better taught by the thorn, than by the lily.
I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.

There is no better school for a Christian, than that of sorrow and trial. The greatest blessing that God can give us is not a comfortable life, but a cross. It is the cross that makes us like our Lord Jesus. The furnace of affliction is the place where the Lord purifies His people. We may thank God for the fire, because it separates the precious from the vile.

Affliction is the torch which God uses to show us the vanity of earth, and the preciousness of Heaven. We are often better for our trials. We would not have known the sweetness of His promises, if we had not tasted the bitterness of affliction. We may be grateful for our afflictions, for they have been the means of driving us to prayer, and bringing us nearer to Jesus.

We cannot always understand God's purposes in affliction, but we may always trust Him, for we know that He causes all things to work together for good to His redeemed children.

"Because of the LORD's faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end.
 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:22-23

What a mercy to be out of the hospital!

What a mercy to have the use of one's limbs and mind!

What a mercy to be out of prison!

What a mercy to be out of Hell!

Surely He has not dealt with us after our sins!

Job 2:10, "Should we accept only good from God, and not adversity?"

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Today's choice AI resource: Jesus was not a nice