Martin Luther Quotes

if we hold fast our confidence in Him, but our faith is also, by the exercise, strengthened: and so it comes, that, if we walk with God in any measure of uprightness of heart, the trials of faith will be greater and greater.

The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.

All my weak days have a common cause - I have neglected communion with God through my neglect of the Scriptures & prayer. When will I learn?

Suffering prepares you by training you to trust God and know that He is always at work in your life.

I know a lot of Christians who have been in ministry and walked away from it because the pressure can be too great. And there's a lot of Christians who at the same time would say like well why does God do [certain things]. What I found is Christians regardless of whatever their experience is who trust God more and learn to go through those moments of challenge and persevere. Usually the end result is an experience and interaction with the Holy Spirit that's greater than it was previously. And for me, there is no pursuit that I desire or enjoy more than that interaction.

God also allows suffering so that we might learn what it means to depend on Him, not on our own strength and resources.

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome.

We all have in our hearts some areas of unbelief. Let us say to the Lord: I believe! Help my unbelief.

Spiritual maturity is measured in terms of persevering faith, not perfect behavior

For our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray.

Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.

I remember that the priest finally said to me, 'You wouldn't like to have a religion that makes things easy for you.' Now I know that both faith and intellect are components of religious belief.

Without extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers. And when the ministry of the Word declines, faith (Rom. 10:17; Gal. 3:2, 5) and holiness (John 17:17) decline. Activity may continue, but life and power and fruitfulness fade away. Therefore, whatever opposes prayer opposes the whole work of ministry.

Every temptation is an offer to doubt God's love and wisdom.

Prayer without study would be empty. Study without prayer would be blind.

Lord I disbelieve - help thou my unbelief.

Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard... 'Tis the living up to it that's difficult.

But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.

I myself, for instance, am not especially gifted, and am shy by nature, but my gracious and merciful God and Father inclined Himself to me, and when I was weak in faith He strengthened me while I was still young. He taught me in my helplessness to rest on Him, and to pray even about little things in which another might have felt able to help himself.

A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.

The saints are sinners still. Our best tears need to be wept over, the strongest faith is mixed with unbelief, our most flaming love is cold compared with what Jesus deserves, and our intensest zeal still lacks the full fervor which the bleeding wounds and pierced heart of the crucified might claim at our hands. Our best things need a sin offering, or they would condemn us.

The degree of our spiritual strength will be in direct proportion to the time we spend in God's Word.

I thought when I became a Christian I had nothing to do but just to lay my oars in the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current.

When we would think of God, how many things we find which turn us away from Him, and tempt us to think otherwise. All this is evil, yet it is innate.

In Shansi I found Chinese Christians who were accustomed to spend time in fasting and prayer. They recognized that this fasting, which so many dislike, which requires faith in God, since it makes one feel weak and poorly, is really a Divinely appointed means of grace. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength; and in fasting we learn what poor, weak creatures we are-dependent on a meal of meat for the little strength which we are so apt to lean upon.