4. Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of
Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the
violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of
man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to
another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends;
and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative
social and civil duties? William Wilberforce
5. Frequently the enemy entices Christians to harbor
an unforgiving spirit - a very common symptom
indeed among God's children. Such bitterness and
fault-finding and enmity inflict a severe blow upon
spiritual life. Watchman Nee
6. But the way to overcome is by patience, forgiving and
praying for your enemies, in doing whereof you heap
coals upon their heads, and your Lord shall open a door
to you in your trouble: wait upon Him, as the night
watch waiteth for the morning. He will not tarry. Go up
to your watch-tower, and come not down, but by
prayer, and faith, and hope, wait on. -
Samuel Rutherford
7. The height of devotion is reached when reverence and
contemplation produce passionate worship, which in turn
breaks forth in thanksgiving and praise in word and
song.
R. Kent Hughes
8. Praise lies upon a higher plain than
thanksgiving. When I give thanks, my
thoughts still circle around myself to
some extent. But in praise my soul
ascends to self-forgetting adoration,
seeing and praising only the majesty and
power of God, His grace and
redemption. Ole Hallesby
9. God wants to see prayers that are filled with genuine praise and
thanksgiving for what He has done in the past. He wants our
hearts to be filled with awe and gratitude for His blessings. He
wants us to set up memorials in our hearts testifying to the
provisions He has given us. Author: Michael Youssef
10. The medical evidence is clear and mounting. It's no
exaggeration to say that bitterness is a dangerous drug
in any dosage and that your very health is at risk if you
stubbornly persist in being unforgiving. Lee Strobel
11. Who are you helping most when you forgive the person who hurt
you? Actually, you're helping yourself more than the other person.
I always looked at forgiving people who hurt me as being really
hard. I thought it seemed so unfair for them to receive forgiveness
when I had gotten hurt. I got pain, and they got freedom without
having to pay for the pain they caused. Now I realize that I'm
helping myself when I choose to forgive. Joyce Meyer
12. I preached on the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith. While
I was speaking, several dropped down as dead and among the rest such a cry
was heard of sinners groaning for the righteousness of faith that it almost
drowned my voice. But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy and
broke out into thanksgiving, being assured they now had the desire of their soul
- the forgiveness of their sins. John Wesley
13. The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into
being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lamb once slain, now
glorified. So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a
eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God through Christ the sacrifice of
our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life is an unending festival. And the
festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful
celebration of his sacrifice, together with a spiritual feasting upon it. John Stott
14. We ought to shout out our
thanksgiving as if every war were
over; as if there were no more big
taxes; as if there were no sickness, no
crime. John R. Rice
15. No sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls,
problems and destructiveness than sexual sin. It has
broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused
more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives
than alcohol and drugs combined. It causes lying, stealing,
cheating and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander,
gossip and unforgivingness. John MacArthur
16. Okay, here's how to do relationships - be kind to
one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, just as God, in Christ, also has forgiven
you. Chip Ingram
17. Our giving is but a reflex of God's giving. Sam Storms
18. It's increasingly common for Christians to ask one another the
tough questions: How is your marriage? Have you been spending
time in the Word? How are you doing in terms of sexual purity?
Have you been sharing your faith? But how often do we ask,
"How much are you giving to the Lord?" or "Have you been
robbing God?" or "Are you winning the battle against
materialism?" Randy Alcorn
19. The key to liberation from the power of materialism is not an
exodus from culture - abandoning Wall Street or leaving the
wealth of the nation to others - but the grace of giving... Givers for
God disarm the power of money. They invite God's grace to flow
through them. R. Kent Hughes
