[Fear] is Satan’s weapon held in reserve. When alluring temptations fail, he opens his quiver and shoots these arrows to set the soul on fire, if not with sin then with terror. When he cannot carry a soul laughing to hell through the deception of pleasurable temptations, he will try to make him go mourning to heaven by this amazing attack. It is a sure sign that Satan is losing. The arrows he shot at Job were of this kind. When God let the devil practice his skill, why did Satan not tempt Job with some golden apple of profit or pleasure or some other enticement? Surely the high testimony God gave about Job discouraged him from these methods. Satan had no tactic left but this.
— William Gurnall (1616–1679), Puritanischer Pastor
Topics: Fear & Anxiety, Temptation & Struggle
William Gurnall
William Gurnall war ein englischer puritanischer Geistlicher des 17. Jahrhunderts, der von 1644 bis zu seinem Tod als Pfarrer in Lavenham wirkte. Bekanntheit erlangte er durch sein umfangreiches Werk „The Christian in Complete Armour“ über die geistliche Waffenrüstung, geriet jedoch 1662 durch seine Anpassung an den staatlichen Act of Uniformity in Konflikt mit nonkonformistischen Puritanern. Heutigen Bibellesern bietet sein Werk eine detailreiche theologische und seelsorgliche Auslegung des Epheserbriefs zur Praxis von Gebet und geistlicher Wachsamkeit.
All quotes by William Gurnall (40)
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Martin Luther
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.
Frederick Buechner
Corrie ten Boom
Worrying does not take away tomorrow's sorrow, it takes away today's strength.
Corrie ten Boom
Jochen Klepper
Helmut Thielicke
We must build dikes of courage against the flood of fear.
Martin Luther King Jr.