God’s school for His children!
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“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Hebrews 5:8
“Our Savior learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and so must we. Affliction, if patiently endured, and sanctified to us, is a great purifier of our corrupted natures. It will teach us excellent things.” (George Whitefield)
“Christian experience is only learned in the school of affliction.” (George Whitefield)
“God loves His own children too well to exempt them from affliction. It is a blessed thing when our trials cure our earnest love for perishable worldly things.” (William S. Plumer)
“Affliction is the school in which great virtues are acquired, in which holy characters are formed.” (Hannah More)
“Afflictions are sent for this end:
to bring us to the throne of grace,
to teach us to pray, and
to make the Word of God’s grace precious to us.
It has always been to the advantage of God’s people to be afflicted. Many are taught with the briars and thorns of affliction, who would not learn otherwise.” (Matthew Henry)
“No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures. I never knew the meaning of God’s Word, until I came into affliction. I have always found it one of my best school-masters.” (Martin Luther)
“If this experimental acquaintance with the Bible is the result of affliction, then welcome the discipline whose rod of correction blossoms into such golden fruit! Let God’s dealings with us be ever so dark, painful, and afflicting, it is utterly impossible that anything can be against the best interests of a believer in Christ.” (Octavius Winslow)
“Affliction is God’s flail to thresh off our husks!” (Thomas Watson)
“Let any Christian view his own life, and see how nearly his whole spiritual progress has been made in the seasons of trial. It is by their private afflictions chiefly that individuals grow in grace.” (R.L. Dabney)
“I bear my willing testimony to the blessing that affliction and trial have been to me.
I owe more to God’s furnace and the file, than I can ever describe!” (C.H. Spurgeon)
“There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.” (J.C. Ryle)
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him!” Learn how little cause we have then to be discontented at outward trials and afflictions! What! Shall we be discontented at that which works for our good? If one friend should throw a bag of money at another, and in throwing it, should graze his head, he would not be troubled much, seeing by this means he had got a bag of money! So the Lord may bruise us by afflictions, but it is to enrich us. These afflictions work for us an exceeding weight of glory–and shall we be discontented?” (Thomas Watson)
“We are only scholars. It rests with the Great Teacher to decide which lesson shall come next, a hard one or an easy one.” (William Ward)
“God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness!” Hebrews 12:10
