While the Lord calls me to be wise and discerning, he reminds me often
that his discernment cannot dwell in a cynical distrustful heart. With
Him, there is no hidden agenda and no ulterior motive. His gifts are
free for the taking but I cannot take these gifts if my hands are
already full of my own weapons of self-protection. Therefore, He asks me
to lay down the shields that I have forged for protection and to pick up
the shield of faith in their place. He asks me to take Him at His Word.

Katherine Walden

—The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 21

The trade of doubting

"When the Christian trusts, he is happy; when he doubts, he is miserable. When the believer looks to his Master and relies upon him, he can sing; when he doubts his Master, he can only groan. What miserable wretches the most faithful Christians are when they once begin doubting and fearing! It is a trade I never like to meddle with, because it never pays the expenses, and never brings in any profit —the trade of doubting."

- Charles Spurgeon, Fear Not

"It is a strange thing that when men talk about the love of God, they show by every word that they utter that they have no conception at all of the depths of God's love.

If you want to find an instance of true gratitude for the infinite grace of God, do not go to those who think of God's love as something that cost nothing, but go rather to those who in agony of soul have faced the awful fact of the guilt of sin, and then have come to know with a trembling wonder that the miracle of all miracles has been accomplished, and that the eternal Son has died in their stead."

—J. Gresham Machen, "What the Bible Teaches About Jesus," in Selected Shorter Writings, ed. D.G. Hart. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2004), 32

If I am afraid to speak the truth lest I lose affection, or lest the one
concerned should say, "You do not understand", or because I fear to lose
my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's
highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Amy Carmichael

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule.

~Frederick W. Robertson

Focused on Christ & His Cross

"Focus on Christ will always result in focus on the cross. You cannot be Christ-centered without becoming cross-centered. The crucified Christ is to be the center of everything I know about myself and my world. You cannot have any real hope for flawed people in a fallen world unless there is a Redeemer to rescue us from the evil that resides both inside and outside of us. Real restoration to God's created design requires the cross. It is the cross of Christ that alone will restore my allegiance to Christ and his rightful place at the center of everything in  my life."

- Paul David Tripp, A Quest for More (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 104.