August 23, 2009

"Troubles will be no troubles, distresses will be no distresses, dangers will be no dangers--if God's presence is with you. Mountains--will be molehills; stabs at the heart--will be as scratches upon the hand; if God's presence is with you. God's special presence will turn . . . storms into calms, winter nights into summer days, prisons into palaces, weakness into strength, poverty into plenty, death into life. Just so, while a Christian enjoys the singular presence of God with him, he will make nothing of this affliction and that affliction, of this trouble and that trouble, of this loss and that loss. God's presence makes . . . heavy afflictions--light, and long afflictions--short, and bitter afflictions--sweet." Thomas Brooks