“Providence is wiser than you, and you may be confident it has suited all things better to your eternal good than you could do had you been left to your own option.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“There is not a greater discovery of pride in the world than in the contests of our wills with the will of God.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“A bad heart and a slippery memory deprive men of the comfort of many mercies, and defraud God of the glory due for them.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“One word of God can do more than ten thousand words of men to relieve a distressed soul.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Be not so intent upon your particular callings as to make them interfere with your general calling. Beware you lose not your God in the crowd and hurry of earthly business. Mind that solemn warning, “But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition,”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence in a blessed subordination to the work of His Spirit. There is a sweet harmony between them in their distinct workings. They all meet in that one blessed issue to which God has by the counsel of His will directed them (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11).”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“in what manner we are to reflect upon the performances of Providence for us. And certainly, it is not every slight and transient glance, nor every cold, historical, unaffecting rehearsal or recognition of His providences towards you that will pass with God for a discharge of this great duty.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Such was the mighty power and deep policy used by Pharaoh to destroy God’s Israel, that to the eye of reason it was as impossible to survive it as for crackling thorns to abide unconsumed amidst devouring flames. By this emblem their miraculous preservation is expressed;”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Enjoyment of your desires is the thing that will please you, but resignation of your wills is that which is pleasing to God.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Providences in themselves are not a perfect guide. They often puzzle and entangle our thoughts; but bring them to the Word, and your duty will be quickly manifested.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“The strength of our unmortified corruption shows itself in our pride and the swelling vanity of our hearts when we have a name and esteem among men. When we are applauded and honoured, when we are admired for any gift or excellence that is in us, this draws forth the pride of the heart and shows the vanity that is in it.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Every man loves the mercies of God, but a saint loves the God of his mercies. The mercies of God, as they are the fuel of a wicked man's lusts, so they are fuel to maintain a good man's love to God; not that their love to God is grounded upon these external benefits.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Some poor creatures are engaged in callings that eat up their time and strength, and make their lives very uncomfortable to them: they have not only spending and wasting employments in the world, but such as allow little or no time for their general calling; and yet all this doth but keep them and theirs alive.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“There is more in one of their mercies to comfort them, than in all their troubles to deject them. All your losses are but as the loss of a farthing to a prince,”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“The providences of God may be observed to conduce to our holiness, not only by preventing sin, that we may not fall into it; but also by purging our sins when we are fallen into them. ‘By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin’ (Isaiah 27:9).”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“He has either strengthened your back to bear, or lightened your burden, or else opened an unexpected door of escape, according to promise (1 Corinthians 10:13), so that the evil which you feared did not come upon you.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“O happy providences, however smart, that make the soul for ever afraid of sin!”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“There is many a bodily ailment inflicted on this very score, to be a clog to prevent sin. O bear them patiently upon this consideration. Basil was sorely grieved with an inveterate headache; he earnestly prayed it might be removed; God removed it. No sooner was he freed of this clog, but he felt the inordinate motions of lust, which made him pray for his headache again. So it might be with many of us, if our clogs were off.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Sin had so shut up mercy from us, that had not Christ made an atonement by his death, we should never have obtained it to all eternity.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“His providences, if duly observed, promote holiness by stopping up our way to sin. O, if men would but note the designs of God in his preventive providences, how useful would it be to keep them upright and holy in their ways! For why is it that the Lord so often hedges up our way with thorns, as it is in Hosea ii. 6, but that we should not find our paths to sin?”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“A cross without a Christ never did any man good.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“3. Improve relations to the end Providence designed them. Walk together as coheirs of the grace of life; study to be mutual blessings to each other; so walk in your relations, that the parting day may be sweet. Death will shortly break up the family; and then, nothing but the sense of duty discharged, or the neglects pardoned, will give comfort.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“But now, all are tied up to the ordinary standing rule of the written word and must not expect any such extraordinary revelations from God. The way we now have to know the will of God concerning us in difficult cases is to search and study the Scriptures, and where we find no particular rule to guide us in this or that particular case, there we are to apply general rules and govern ourselves according to the analogy and proportion they bear towards each other.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“That Providence has a special hand in our marriage is evident both from Scripture assertions and the acknowledgments of holy men, who in that great event of their lives have still owned and acknowledged the directing hand of Providence. Take an instance of both. The Scripture plainly asserts the dominion of Providence over this affair: 'A prudent wife is from the LORD' (Proverbs 19:14). 'Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD' (Proverbs 18:22). So for children: 'Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD; and the fruit of the womb is his reward' (Psalm 127:3).”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“One morsel of God’s provision, especially when it comes in unexpectedly, and upon prayer, when wants are most, will be more sweet”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Do not worry your hearts with sinful cares. 'Behold the fowls of the air' (Matthew 6:26), says Christ; not the fowls at the door that are daily fed by hand, but those of the air, that do not know where the next meal is coming from; and yet God provides for them. Remember your relation to Christ, and His engagements by promise to you, and by these things work your hearts to satisfaction and contentment with all the allotments of Providence.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“But now all are tied up to the ordinary, standing rule of the written word, and must not expect any such extraordinary revelations from God. The way we now have to know the will of God concerning us in difficult cases, is to search and study the Scriptures; and where we find no particular rule to guide us in this or that particular case, there we are to apply general rules, and govern ourselves according to the analogy and proportion they bear towards each other.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“A scrap of paper, accidentally coming to view, has been used as an occasion of conversion. This was the case of a minister in Wales, who had two livings, but took little care of either. Being at a fair he bought something at a pedlar's stall, and tore off a leaf of Mr Perkins' Catechism to wrap it in, and reading a line or two in it, God sent it home so as it did the work.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“Outward things are promiscuously dispensed, and no man’s spiritual estate is discernible by the view of his temporal. When God draws the sword, it may “cut off the righteous as well as the wicked,”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
“O what a difference we have seen between our afflictions at our first meeting with them, and our parting from them! We have entertained them with sighs and tears but parted from them with joy, blessing God for them, as the happy instruments of our good. Thus our fears and sorrows are turned into praises and songs of thanksgiving.”
― John Flavel, quote from The Mystery of Providence
John Flavel
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“Wir müssen unbedingt Raum für Zweifel lassen, sonst gibt es keinen Fortschritt, kein Dazulernen. Man kann nichts Neues herausfinden, wenn man nicht vorher eine Frage stellt. Und um zu fragen, bedarf es des Zweifelns.”
― Richard Feynman, quote from The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
“Occupation? Put down, well – tourists. We’ve been called harder names before now;”
― Joseph Conrad, quote from Victory
“Gelfred,’ the captain said, with a bitter smile. ‘God doesn’t give a fuck.’ Their”
― Miles Cameron, quote from The Red Knight
“كن ناضجًا عاطفيًا , واسمح للآخرين بالاختلاف معك . إن لهم حق الاختلاف معك وأنت لك نفس حرية الاختلاف معهم . إنك تسطيع أن تختلف دون أن تكون مخالفًا”
― Joseph Murphy, quote from The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
“That’s how I approach just about everything. I spend my life getting ready to play “Rocket Man.” I picture the most demanding challenge; I visualize what I would need to know how to do to meet it; then I practice until I reach a level of competence where I’m comfortable that I’ll be able to perform. It’s what I’ve always done, ever since I decided I wanted to be an astronaut in 1969, and that conscious, methodical approach to preparation is the main reason I got to Houston. I never stopped getting ready. Just in case.”
― Chris Hadfield, quote from An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
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