Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

The question in relationships is not ‘does this person deserve better than me?’ Of course they do, their father is God. The question is ‘Am I willing to work to be worthy of this person?’

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.

People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it.

In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

There are no shortcuts to authentic love. You cannot say “I love you, but I am only willing to love you this much!” You cannot say you love me if you have written hundreds of conditions into your heart. “I will only love you if times are good. I will only love you if blessings are unmistakably abundant. I will only love you if life is easy. I will only love you when the course of life runs smooth.” That is not love. Stop bargaining your way into loving me. Stop giving me only your excesses. Stop giving me only your crumbs.

It’s simple, really.
‘There is only one thing needful’—
To sit at the feet of Jesus.
And yet so easily we’re turned aside
By things that matter less—
By things that matter not at all.
We bend beneath the weight of burdens
We were never asked to bear
We fill our lives so full
We cannot hear the voice
Of Him who loves us,
Who whispers to our weary souls,
‘Come to me, and I will give you rest.’

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Unka Glen: Seize your chance at greatness ›

Thankfulness is the antidote to self pity. Regularly in my walk, and I’m sure it’s true for these other brothers, I will sense a weird attitude in my heart that is self pitying. In that moment, I know it’s time to get a hold of some thankfulness. I don’t know what lie I’m buying into, but I know the truth that Jesus saw me from a long way off, rescued me, and made me his own.

He said to me I was a tree in a story about a forest, and that it was arrogant of me to believe any differently. And he told me the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree… I sat by the fire until the sun came up; and asked God to help me understand the story of the forest and what it meant to be a tree in that story.