8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
17 This is what the LORD says--your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
16 This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.
30 “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?”
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
“We are generally left with two feelings when we play the comparison game with others – we either feel worse about ourselves or pridefully better about ourselves – neither brings out the best God has desired for the lives of His children. We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalms 139:14). There are purposes and plans for each of our lives which are plans to prosper and not harm and give hope (Jeremiah 29:11). We are each loved with an everlasting love and drawn with cords of loving kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). The man is blessed who makes the Lord his trust and does not look to the proud (Psalms 40:4). Every child of the King is blessed and fulfilled when they are standing firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured (Colossians 4:12). We are to live our lives for an audience of One – seeking to please our Master (which indeed always pleases us as one never outgives God), through His power, for His glory, for our good. So we make it our goal to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9). The beloved rests secure in Him for He shields him all day long and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12). He is more than sufficient to meet every inner need and desire of our hearts and to use our lives for His glory, which btw is what we were all created for.” BHY
“Our Creator is infinitely good, and His will is love: to submit to one who is ‘too wise to err, too good to be unkind,’ should not be hard.” C.H. Spurgeon
“God is God, and since He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.” Elisabeth Elliot
“It is vastly important where our steady gaze remains – fixed on Jesus – as we traverse this dusty earth on our way home. It is easy to grow weary and loose heart without a proper focus. He gives us everything we need to do His will. We don’t muster “it” up because “it” is not in the flesh. The flesh will fizzle out while the Spirit is a steady stream of achieving power and joy and peace as we remain in the center of His good and pleasing and perfect will. It is the best place to be – hands down.” BHY
“Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and His will for us.” Billy Graham
“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Jim Elliot
“God wants us to trust Him daily with our needs. This trust does not make us poor planners or careless with our futures, unprepared to face what may come. Rather, it keeps our relationship with the Lord in its proper perspective as He reminds us daily of our dependence upon Him. God is aware of what tomorrow will bring and how we should prepare for it. He knows the problems we will face, and He has already made provision for us to overcome them. He asks us to trust in Him daily. Our faith in Him today cannot substitute for our trust in Him tomorrow. If we will walk with Him closely today, we will be in the center of His will tomorrow.” Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby
“Unlike the worldly culture around us, we are not rudderless. We have God's guiding Holy Spirit to show us the best course. But first we must surrender completely to following His will and His commandments, even when they do not match our personal desires. We must spend regular time in prayer learning His voice and His heart. The more we know God, the easier it will be to discern His voice from our own self-serving thoughts.” Michael Youssef
“A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply to be willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing He may choose. It is electing His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish us to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being willing to do some one thing: it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where, and how, it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed. This distinction cannot be overemphasized… There must be a covenant relationship of trust in which His will is assented to once for all and without reservation.” Louis Sperry Chafer
“But the question to precede all others, which finally determines the course of our lives is, ‘What do I really want?’ Was it to love what God commands, in the words of the collect, and to desire what He promises? Did I want what I wanted, or did I want what He wanted, no matter what it might cost?” Elisabeth Elliot
“Christian, make your life a clear testimony. Be like the stream in which you can see every stone at the bottom—not like a muddy creek where you can only see the surface, but clear and transparent, so that your heart's love for God and man may be visible to all.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“We have no power in an of ourselves to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Flesh will not finish well. It is only through His power that we are able to do this. It is actually an emptying of self and a filling of the Holy Spirit’s power to take over the whole life. God is not interested in just part of us – He desires the whole heart. Our pleas to Him, as King David’s was for his son Solomon, is for Him to give us wholehearted devotion and a willing mind to walk in a manner worthy of His Gospel. Always for our good. Always for His glory. The One who gives the power to accomplish so great a fete is the One Who is to get the glory.” BHY
“Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.” Martin Luther
“What is ‘good’? Just as Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is Truth?’ while all the while looking straight at Truth Incarnate, we as humans often misconstrue ‘What is good?’ and end up missing out on God’s best by ‘kicking against the goads’ and not walking in His ways. We so often buy into what the world believes as good. Do we believe it’s all about more – More clothes in the closet? More comforts in the den? More money in the bank? More health in the body? More buildings, marquees, publications or whatever’s bearing our names? More children in the home? And on and on and on it goes. ‘Good’ is not merely ‘wants.’ ‘Good’ can be as varied as the people who populate this dusty earth. Simply put, ‘good’ is always God’s best for a life. The Maker of all humankind has a plan for each life and our best is always to walk in it – be it ever so hard. His will is revealed in a myriad of ways from His Word, from the Holy Spirit’s promptings Who indwells every true believer in Christ, from prayer and petition with thanksgiving, from fellow sojourners – why God can even use a donkey or a great big fish! And believe me, you always want to be in the center of His will as it is good and pleasing and perfect. Don’t fight against God’s best because it is hard. Allow Him to conform you to the image of Christ. We are the ultimate losers if we don’t. It is the life of true blessedness.” BHY
“Here lies the tremendous mystery – that God should be all-powerful, yet refuses to coerce. He summons us to cooperation. We are honored in being given the opportunity to participate in His good deeds.” Elisabeth Elliot