The greatest things are always hedged about by the hardest
things, and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and chariots of
iron. Hardship is the price of
coronation. Triumphal arches are not
woven out of rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody
scars. The very hardships that you are
enduring in your life today are given by the Master for the explicit purpose of
enabling you to win your crown….do not wait for some ideal situation, some
romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency; but rise to meet the actual
conditions which the providence of God has laced around you today. Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very
heart of those things—those hardships and trials that are pressing you this
very hour, week and month of your life.
The hardest things are not those that the world knows of. Down in your secret soul unseen and unknown
by any but Jesus, there is a little trial that you would not dare to mention,
that is harder for you to bear than martyrdom.
There, beloved, lies your crown.
God help you to overcome, and sometime wear it. --Unknown
You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. Isaiah 62:3
...And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. I Peter 5:4
Oh, such a rich quote. A piercing reminder to us all! It reminds me of Stevenson's words: "This world had no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And you are not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat."
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