Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died, and in Christ we have been raised.

God loves broken people because broken people are all that there are.

The gospel doesn't just ignite the Christian life but it keeps Christians growing and growing every day. There's no reason to move beyond the gospel. There's only movement more into it.

If we're not reaching the same people Jesus reached, then we're not preaching the same message Jesus preached.

The good news of the gospel [for sufferers] is not an exhortation from above to 'hang on at all costs,' or 'grin and bear it' in the midst of hardship. No, the good news is that God is hanging on to you, and in the end, when all is said and done, the power of God will triumph over every pain and loss.

The good news of suffering is that it brings us to the end of ourselves - a purpose it has certainly served in my life. It brings us to the place of honesty, which is the place of desperation, which is the place of faith, which is the place of freedom.

Your pain could be God prying open your life and heart to remove a gift of His that you've been on to more dearly than Him.