Our faith is the center of the target God aims at when He tests us, and if any gift escapes untested, it certainly will not be our faith.

There is nothing that pierces faith to its very marrow—to find whether or not it is the faith of those who are immortal—like shooting the arrow of the feeling of being deserted into it.

And only genuine faith will escape unharmed from the midst of the battle after having been stripped of its armor of earthly enjoyment and after having endured the circumstances coming against it that the powerful hand of God has allowed.

Faith must be tested, and the sense of feeling deserted is “the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual” (Daniel 3:19) into which it may be thrown.

Blessed is the person who endures such an ordeal! CHARLES H. SPURGEON

Paul said, “I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7), but his head was removed! They cut it off, but they could not touch his faith.

This great apostle to the Gentiles rejoiced in three things: he had “fought the good fight,” he had “finished the race,” and he had “kept the faith.”

So what was the value of everything else? The apostle Paul had won the race and gained the ultimate prize—he had won not only the admiration of those on earth today but also the admiration of heaven.

So why do we not live as if it pays to lose “all things . . . that [we] may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8)?

Why are we not as loyal to the truth as Paul was? It is because our math is different—he counted in a different way than we do.

What we count as gain, he counted as loss.

If we desire to ultimately wear the same crown, we must have his faith and live it.

When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.

The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.

A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.—Although he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.—He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.—Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.

They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

He himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.—Simon, Simon, . . . Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.

Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord ; for his mercies are great.—I am with thee, saith the Lord , to save thee: . . . I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.—He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.—I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.—Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.

Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.