Online Christian Literature Index
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:6-7)
"None of us can come to the highest maturity without enduring the summer heat of trials. As the sycamore fig never ripens if it be not bruised, as the corn does not leave the husk without threshing, and as wheat makes no fine flour until it be ground, so are we of little use till we are afflicted. Why should we be so eager to escape such benefits?" - Spurgeon
“The winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.” - Richard Sibbes
By Charles H. Spurgeon
(1834 - 1892)
"...Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day..." Exodus 14:13
THESE words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand and on the left; what is he now to do? The Master’s word to him is, “Stand still.” 
By Peter Sarkis
At first Peter was safely walking on the water going towards Jesus. But when He took His eyes off Jesus and looked around him and saw how the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and “beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matt. 14:30). In the same way when we are going through the storms of life and take our eyes off Christ and look at our circumstances, we become afraid and disheartened.
What! God loves me when He is discharging His quiver upon me! emptying me from vessel to vessel! causing the sun of my earthly joys to set in clouds? Yes! O afflicted, tossed with tempest; He chastens you because He loves you! This trial comes from His own tender, loving hand; His own tender, unchanging heart.
While I am mortal, I must taste of the waters of Mara; drink of the cup of adversity; and swim the tempestuous ocean. It is the perfection of angels, that they could never experience the pain of mental disquiet, or the pangs of anguish. And it is the happiness of departed saints, to obtain joy for mourning, a crown for crosses; and to forget their misery, if not wholly, yet to remember it as waters, once swelled to a dreadful flood—but which now have forever flown away. It is, then the misery of the sons of men, only while here, to be, as it were, a mark set up for the arrows of tribulation, and to be engaged in constant war, and in perpetual broils. But it is the privileges of the Christian soldier to wear the shield of faith, with which he shall be able to quench the fiery darts of Satan, and to ward off the sling-stones of tribulation which pelt him from every quarter. How, then, may I triumph under all my afflictions? Consider, 
