"Little reflection is needed for us to realize that our desires are very often ill-formed, ill-targeted, or ill-timed, or all of these at once. When we pray, ‘we know not what we should pray for as we ought’ (Rom. 8:26). We often do not know our true needs or even the true desires of our heart. We certainly are limited in knowing the needs of others. Our solution to a problem may not be the best one, and our sense of urgency may not at all be God’s and based in reality. But we desire and pray all the same, and God brings our desires and prayers under His discreet management so as to satisfy His purposes and our desires more fully than we could have thought. Unwise yearnings get corrected, unworthy desires fall away, as the Spirit processes our requests, interceding for us ‘according to the will of God’ (Rom. 8:27). In time we may very well be relieved that He has wisely discriminated among our desires. For now, we may very well be burdened with a keen sense of loss.”
 
~ Ron Horton (1936-2019)

​As a wise, skilled pharmacist mixes medicine--so our heavenly Father wisely mixes exactly the right measure of bitter things and sweet, to do us good.

Too much joy would intoxicate us.
Too much misery would drive us to despair.

Too much sorrow would crush us.
Too much suffering would break our spirits.

Too much pleasure would ruin us.
Too much defeat would discourage us.

Too much success would puff us up.
Too much failure would keep us from doing anything.

Too much criticism would harden us.
Too much praise would exalt us.

Our great God knows exactly what we need.

His Providence is wisely designed and sovereignly sent for our good!

Let God send and do whatever He wills--by His grace, if we are His, we will face it, bow to it, accept it, and give thanks for it. God's Providence is always executed in the 'wisest manner' possible. We are often unable to see and understand the reasons and causes for specific events in our lives, in the lives of others, or in the history of the world. But our lack of understanding does not prevent us from believing God.
~ Don Fortner
 

"To which I may add this dilemma to our Universalists:—God imposed His wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for, either all the sins of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some sins of all men. If the last, some sins of all men, then have all men some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved; for if God enter into judgment with us, though it were with all mankind for one sin, no flesh should be justified in His sight: ‘If the Lord should mark iniquities, who should stand?’ Ps. 130:3. We might all go to cast all that we have ‘to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty,’ Isa. 2:20-21. If the second, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world. If the first, why, then, are not all freed from the punishment of their sins? You will say, ‘because of their unbelief; they will not believe.’ But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died from partaking of the fruit of His death? If He did not, then did He not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will.”

~ John Owen (1616-1683)