The wisdom of those who have journeyed before us can offer comfort and strength. Here are 55 powerful quotes from 11 faithful Christian authors, who have walked through challenges and emerged with deep faith holding on to Jesus. These individuals endured their own deserts, and in times of spiritual dryness or life’s trials, it can be comforting to learn from brothers and sisters in Christ who have already run the race. Let their words inspire you to keep moving forward, no matter how difficult the path may seem.
1 Corrie ten Boom:
- “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
- “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”
- “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
- “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”
- “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.“
2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
- “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
- “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
- “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession.”
- “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
- “I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil.“
3 C.S. Lewis:
- “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
- “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
- “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
- “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
- “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
4 John Bunyan:
- “He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.”
- “Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”
- “What God says is best, indeed is best, though all the men in the world are against it.”
- “In times of affliction, we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God.”
- “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.“
5 Charles Spurgeon:
- “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.”
- “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”
- “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
- “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”
- “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.“
6 Oswald Chambers:
- “We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.”
- “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”
- “When it is a question of God’s almighty Spirit, never say, ‘I can’t.'”
- “The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance.”
- “Trust God, and when He brings you to the end of yourself, know that it is the end of yourself and not the end of your life.“
7 Elisabeth Elliot:
- “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”
- “God never withholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good.”
- “Leave it all in the Hands that were wounded for you.”
- “We must learn to live by the love of what we will never see.”
- “Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question.“
8 Henri Nouwen:
- “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain.”
- “The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.”
- “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”
- “In the presence of Jesus, there is no enemy.”
- “The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.“
9 A.W. Tozer:
- “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
- “The man who would truly know God must give time to Him.”
- “Faith, as Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ.”
- “We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day, but remember at the time they didn’t know they were heroes.”
- “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.“
10 Watchman Nee:
- “Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.”
- “The Christian experience, from start to finish, is a journey of faith.”
- “A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.”
- “Good is not always God’s will, but God’s will is always good.”
- “Outside of Christ, I am weak; in Christ, I am strong.“
11 Brother Lawrence:
- “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”
- “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
- “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.”
- “We must trust in God’s providence, which is always wiser than our plans.”
- “I regard myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and as one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Touched with a sensible regret, I confess to Him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands that He may do what He pleases with me.”
I hope that some of these quotes offer you comfort. Here you can find the corresponding article about the life of each of those 11 authors, their hardships and their theological perspectives.
