Quotes about Spiritual
Growth in grace is the best evidence of spiritual health and prosperity. In a child or a flower or a tree, we are all aware that when there is no growth, there is something wrong. Healthy life in an animal or plant will always show itself by progress and increase. It is the same with our souls. If they are progressing and doing well, they will grow.
- JC Ryle
There is an incessant craving after any teaching that is sensational, exciting, and stirs up emotion. There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of intermittent and emotional Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual taste testing, and the agreeable spirit and peaceful that Peter commends is completely forgotten (1 Peter 3:4). Crowds, crying, feelings, entertaining singing, and an incessant stirring up of the emotions are the only things that many people care for.
- JC Ryle
One of the surest marks of spiritual decline is a decreased interest about the souls of others and the growth of Christ's kingdom.
- JC Ryle
I will never back away from declaring my belief that there are no spiritual gains without pains. I would as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who was content with sowing his fields and never looking at them until harvest, as to expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, prayer, and the use of his Sundays. Our God is a God who works by means, and He will never bless the soul of that person who pretends to be so superior
- JC Ryle
This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take for them — in every plan, scheme, and arrangement that concerns them — do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?
- JC Ryle
just as we know there is a wind by the effect it produces on waves and trees and smoke, so we can know that the Holy Spirit is in a person by the effects He produces in the person's conduct. It is foolish to think that we have the Spirit if we do not also walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). We can depend on it as an absolute certainty that where there is no holy living, there is no Holy Spirit. The seal that the Spirit stamps on Christ's people is sanctification
- JC Ryle
Every living thing which God creates requires food. The life that God imparts needs sustaining and nourishing. It is so with animal and vegetable life,—with birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, insects, and plants. It is equally so with spiritual life. When the Holy Ghost raises a man from the death of sin and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus, the new principle in that man's heart requires food, and the only food which will sustain it is the Word of God.
- JC Ryle
If people have no likeness to the Father in heaven, it is pointless to talk of their being His children.
- JC Ryle
Conversion is not putting a man in an arm-chair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory.
- JC Ryle
The man who will not give up his passions, who clings to anger, unkindness, sensuality, pride, vanity self-indulgence, for the momentary pleasure which their gratification affords him is a spiritual miser; he cannot have any spiritual comforts.
- James Allen
Thirst is a symptom of need, the body's way of telling me to take action. If I don't listen, I end up dehydrated and all sorts of bad things can happen, including loss of consciousness and death. Spiritual dryness is also a symptom: Something is wrong! Take action! I'm drying up! I need God. My soul's longing for God is as never-ending as my physical need for water. And spiritual dehydration leads to spiritual death.
- Lynn Austin
Maybe it's because spiritual growth and vibrant faith in God don't happen in isolation, but under pressure.
- Lynn Austin