When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again
Interpretation
In suffering, we seek a deeper understanding and perspective of a greater reality rather than mere explanations.
This quote emphasizes the need for a profound revelation of God during times of pain and suffering, rather than a simple explanation for our hardships. It suggests that when we are in distress, our perception of reality becomes distorted and that recognizing the greatness of God can help restore our sense of proportion and perspective on life.
In practice
A pastor might use this quote during a sermon on the nature of suffering and faith.
Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.
The ability to calm your soul and wait before God is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life. Our old nature is restless... the world around us is frantically in a hurry. But a restless heart usually leads to a reckless life.
If you are going to live by faith, then expect your faith to be tested. A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted.
People who walk by faith don't see obstacles, they see opportunities.
Hypocrisy means deliberately pretending. None of us lives up to his ideals; none of us is all that he would like to be or all that he could be in Christ. But that is not hypocrisy. Falling short of our ideals is not hypocrisy. Pretending we have reached our ideals when we have not - that is hypocrisy.
We have little control over the circumstances of life. We can't control the weather or the economy, and we can't control what other people say about or do to us. There is only one area where we have control--we can rule the kingdom inside. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.
God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for one reason: it's a future that was written so as to be altered.
How do we transform mere power into justice, mere sentiment into love?
Who can hope to be safe? who sufficiently cautious?_x000D_ _x000D_ Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush.
Like so many pilgrims before us, we kneel in wonder and adoration before the ineffable mystery which. was accomplished here... In This Child - the Son who is given to us - we find rest for our souls and the true bread that never fails - the Eucharistic Bread foreshadowed even in the name of this town: Bethlehem, the house of bread. God lies hidden in the Child; divinity lies hidden in the Bread of Life
The wicked exist in this world either to be converted or that through them the good may exercise patience.
Whether on'e special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion.
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