Quotes on Temptation & Struggle

Christian quotes on Temptation & Struggle — with author, dates and source, from two millennia of Christian thought.

The devil is a better theologian than any of us, and he is still a devil.

A.W. Tozer

Discipline is choosing what you want most over what you want now.

Craig Groeschel

Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair

Martin Luther

The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

And Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees.

William Cowper

Our old man is crucified, but he is long at dying.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Midway upon the journey of our life, // I found myself within a dark forest, // for the straight path had been lost.

Dante Alighieri

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.

John Mark Comer

Against evil and sad thoughts a good, cheerful song and friendly conversation are called for.

Martin Luther

Trials are embraces of God.

Martin Luther

Faith grows strong in the darkness of testing! Photos are developed in dark rooms.

Corrie ten Boom

When temptation knocks at the door, I ask Jesus to answer it. That is the surest way to get rid of it.

Corrie ten Boom

God does not demand that we never grow weak, but that we always begin again with good will.

Romano Guardini

At first the evil inclination is like a passer-by, then like a guest, and finally like the master of the house.

Talmud

We are too Christian to enjoy sin, and too sinful to enjoy God. That is why we are so miserable.

Brother Andrew

Lord, if you do not find me as one who conquers, then find me as one who struggles.

Augustine of Hippo

Given our sinful nature, victory over sin does not show itself in the absence of sin, but in how we deal with sin.

George Verwer

Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God.

John Piper

Christ and His cross are not separable in this life, howbeit Christ and His cross part at heaven’s door, for there is no house-room for crosses in heaven. One tear, one sigh, one sad heart, one fear, one loss, one thought of trouble cannot find lodging there.

Samuel Rutherford

That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, “Thou art my refuge.”

George MacDonald

Temptations are rather hopeful evidences that thy estate is good, that thou art dear to God, and that it shall go well with thee forever, than otherwise. God had but one Son without corruption, but He had none without temptation.

Thomas Brooks

Difficulties are the food that faith feeds upon.

George Muller

A great help in temptation is to remember that sinning is more than breaking a rule. It is grieving a Person who loves us beyond measure.

Paul Washer

But prayer is the only remedy for it, and however many devils scurry around inside me, I shall cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even if my numb hands can no longer feel it.

Sophie Scholl

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love.

Henri Nouwen

It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.

Henri Nouwen

Jesus’ first temptation was to be relevant: to turn stones into bread.

Henri Nouwen

I leave home every time I lose faith in the voice that calls me the Beloved and follow the voices that offer a great variety of ways to win the love I so much desire.

Henri Nouwen

I wonder if the greatest temptation is self-rejection. Could it be that beneath all the lures to greed, lust, and success rests a great fear of never being enough or not being lovable?

Henri Nouwen

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.

Tim Keller

I may look forward to God's surprises of blessing, and even in the thicket of temptations reckon with his secret helping measures.

Paul Deitenbeck

The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed.

Oswald Chambers

Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always.

Oswald Chambers

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.

Flannery O'Connor

The safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

C.S. Lewis

Feed your faith, and your doubts will starve to death.

Corrie ten Boom

Victory does not lie in trying, but in trusting.

Corrie ten Boom

If the devil can’t make you bad, he will make you busy.

Jim Burns

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.

Samuel Chadwick

People quoted here

A.W. Tozer, Craig Groeschel, Martin Luther, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Cowper, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Dante Alighieri, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, John Mark Comer, Corrie ten Boom, Romano Guardini, Talmud

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