How many, how suitable, how sovereign are the supports our heavenly Father affords to His afflicted children! They make the affliction, which in itself would seem heavy and tedious appear to be light, and but for a moment. It is happier to be in the furnace of affliction with these supports than to be in the highest prosperity without them! Blessed with the hopes and comforts of Christ! The true Christian would prefer the lot of Lazarus, with all the poverty and distress which he endured to the lot of the rich man, who, amidst all the splendor and affluence which this world could afford – lived a life of alienation from God, and destitute of the sovereign supports which can only be enjoyed, by those who love and fear Him.
— John Fawcett (1740–1817), Baptistenpastor, Theologe, Hymnendichter
Topics: Suffering & the Question of God, Hope & Confidence, Faith & Trust
Occasions: Comfort
John Fawcett
John Fawcett (1740–1817) war ein britischer Baptistenpastor, Theologe und Kirchenlieddichter, der über Jahrzehnte in ländlichen Gemeinden in Yorkshire wirkte. Bekannt wurde er vor allem durch den Choral „Blest Be the Tie That Binds“, theologische Schriften zur praktischen Frömmigkeit und sein Engagement in der Ausbildung junger Prediger. Für heutige Bibelleser vermitteln seine Lieder und Kommentare Impulse zu christlicher Gemeinschaft, Sanftmut und treuem Dienst in der Ortsgemeinde.
All quotes by John Fawcett (8)
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
C.S. Lewis
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
Henri Nouwen
He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Etty Hillesum
God writes straight even on crooked lines.
Paul Claudel
God lets us walk no path that he himself has not walked, and on which he does not go ahead of us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer