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19 Spurgeon Quotes for Coping with Stress and Anxiety

Staff October 6, 2016

Are you stressed out?

So was Spurgeon.

For most of his ministry, Spurgeon wobbled between illness and anxiety. He burned most of his calories preaching, teaching, writing, visiting, and giving himself to what his wife called the “multiplied labors of his exceptionally busy life” (Autobiography 2:16).

“A pastor’s work is an anxious one” (An All-Round Ministry, 257).

Spurgeon’s life energetically blended mission with ambition. As such, burn-out and anxiety became his common companions.

Stress from preaching:

“Almost every week I have the pleasure of preaching twelve times, and often in my sleep do I think of what I shall say next time” (NPSP 3:215).

“God is my witness, I scarcely ever prepare for my pulpit with pleasure: study for the pulpit is to me the most irksome work in the world” (NPSP 3:255).

“To sit long in one posture, pouring over a book, or driving a quill, is in itself a taxing of nature; but add to this a badly ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing a seething cauldron of despair” (Lectures to My Students 1:173-74).

Stress from writing:

“I am only a poor clerk, driving the pen hour after hour; here is another whole morning gone, and nothing done but letters! letters letters” (Autobiography 4:86).

Stress from physical suffering:

“My heart is often heavy with trials” (Autobiography 3:155).

“Often when [Spurgeon] waked in the morning, his right hand was as rigidly locked as if it had been petrified. Not a joint could be unbent by the force of its own muscles” (Wayland, Charles H. Spurgeon: His Faith and Works, 188).

So how did Spurgeon de-stress? How did the Prince of Preachers recharge his battery? He often fled the frost and fog of London to Mentone, a coastal city in France.

“Rest I could not find at home, where every hour has its cares; but here, I cease altogether from these things, and the mind becomes like an unstrung bow, and so regains its elasticity” (Autobiography 4:226).

Portrait of Spurgeon

Sorrow always greeted the preacher upon his return. Yet like the burning bush in the desert, Spurgeon believed God’s people are “well to be consumed so long as the Spirit of God would dwell in us and manifest his power” (An All-Round Ministry, 204).

The ultimate aim is not to escape anxiety but to allow it to usher us into healing presence of Jesus Christ.

Let Spurgeon remind you today that burdens can become blessings. Here are nineteen Spurgeon quotes for coping with stress and anxiety.

 1. “There is good in the evil, and sweetness in the bitter.”

“It is only for a little moment that we are to be here. The cup is very bitter, but then there is not much in it; let us take it all down at a draught. These pills are too small for us to make two bites at them. Besides, to chew them is to get their bitterness, to swallow them is to know nothing about it. So do with the troubles of this life; take them as they come, cheerfully and contentedly, thankfully praising God that there is good in the evil, and sweetness in the bitter. Take it all. It will not last long” (MTP 40:549).

2. “Troubled one, you will enjoy calm yet.”

“Troubled one, you will enjoy calm yet. Poor tried and tempted child of God, you will see days in which you will wonder where your troubles are . . . . [N]o vessel that hath Christ on board shall suffer shipwreck” (MTP 19:394-95).

3. “Our songs should exceed our sighs.”

“We have plenty of troubles and trials, and if we like to fret over them, we can always do that; but, then, we have far more joys than troubles, so our songs should exceed our sighs. We have a good God, who has promised that, as our days, so shall our strength be” (MTP 54:309).

4. “The trees bow in the wind, and so must we.”

“The trees bow in the wind, and so must we. Every time the sheep bleats it loses a mouthful, and every time we complain we miss a blessing. Grumbling is a bad trade, and yields no profit, but patience has a golden hand. Our evils will soon be over. After rain comes clear shining; black crows have wings; every winter turns to spring; every night breaks into morning” (John Ploughman’s Talk, 57-58).

5. “Nothing in this world happens by chance.”

“The medicine you have to drink is very bitter, but the unerring Physician measured all the ingredients drop by drop, and then mixed them in the very way in which they could best work for your highest good. Nothing in this world happens by chance. That great God-who sitteth upon the circler of the heavens, to whom all things that he hath made are but as the small dust of the balance, who maketh the clouds his chariot, and rideth upon the wings of the wind, – that same God careth for you with such special care that he has even numbered the very hairs of your head, and put your tears in his bottle. You may therefore rest assured that even those experiences which are causing you so much sorrow are all in accordance with his eternal counsel and decree” (MTP 57:62).

6. “Whatever wrong I suffer it cannot do me half so much hurt as being angry about it.”

“Nothing is improved by anger, unless it be the arch of a cat’s back. A man with his back up is spoiling his figure. People look none the handsomer for being red in the face. . . . Whatever wrong I suffer it cannot do me half so much hurt as being angry about it” (John Ploughman’s Pictures, 160).

7. “Get alone with Jesus, and He will comfort your hearts, and restore your weary souls.”

“I hope you will not give way to doubts and despondency; but do what you can, leave the rest to God. Blessed is the man who has the God of Jacob for his Helper; he need not fear either want or pain, or death. The more you can realize this, the happier will you become; and the only means for so doing is to hold frequent communion with God in prayer. Get alone with Jesus, and He will comfort your hearts, and restore your weary souls” (Autobiography 1:351). 

8. “The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls.”

“Our winters shall not frown for ever; summer shall soon smile. The tide will not eternally ebb out; the floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls; the sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings. – ‘The Lord turned again to the captivity of Job.’ Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them” (MTP 7:449).

9. “Turn this care into prayer.”

“Once more, cares are of no use to us, and they cause us great damage. If you were to worry as long as you wished, you could not make yourself an inch taller, or grow another hair on your head, or make one hair white or black. . . . If we forget to pray, do you wonder that we are all in a fidget, and a worry, and we do the first thing that occurs to us, which is generally the worst thing, instead of waiting till we saw what should be done, and then trustfully and believingly doing it as in the sight of God? Care is injurious; but if you only turn this care into prayer, then every care will be a benefit to you” (MTP 40:112).

10. “Grace, by its matchless art, has often turned the heaviest of our trials into occasions for heavenly joy.”

“Our afflictions are like weights, and have a tendency to bow us to the dust, but there is a way of arranging weights by means of wheels and pulleys, so that they will even lift us up. Grace, by its matchless art, has often turned the heaviest of our trails into occasions for heavenly joy” (Feathers for Arrows, 18).

11. “Leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.”

“If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God” (Morning and Evening, January 6, AM).

12. “The world is in God’s hand after all.”

“Now, if in any future day the shadow of a disaster should cross your path, and you should be in fear that your beloved ones are lost, I pray you, if you are Christian people, exercise faith at such a time, and stay yourselves upon God. Recollect, if you become so anxious as to lose your clearness of mind, you will not be fit for the emergency. It may be that by retaining calmness of soul you will be of service; but by giving up the very helm of your mind, and allowing yourself to drift before the torrent of anxiety, you will become useless and helpless. In patience possess your souls. The world is in God’s hand after all” (MTP 24:512).

13. “Faith in Jesus is the best cure for every care.”

“If there are any of you in great trouble, I would like to remind you of this fact, that faith in Jesus is the best cure for every care, the best balm for every wound. Get you away to Jesus; at the foot of his cross is the best place for mourners. All our other sorrows die where Jesus’s sorrows are revealed. Faith in Christ is what you need beyond everything else” (MTP 55:92).

14. “Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.”

“Brethren, a want of familiarity with the Word of God is very often the seed-plot of our doubts! Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible. Our spirits sink for want of the heavenly food stored up in the inspired Volume” (MTP 33:489).

15. “If God cares for you, why need you care too?”

“If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God” (Morning and Evening, January 6, AM).

16. “God is being glorified in your troubles.”

“My dear brother, do you know that sometimes God works a greater wonder when he sustains his people in trouble than he would do if he brought them out of it. For him to let the bush burn on and yet not to be consumed is a grander thing than for him to quench the flame and so save the bush. God is being glorified in your troubles, and if you realise this you will be ready to say, ‘Lord, heap on the loads, if it be for thy glory; give me but strength equal to my day, and then pile on the burdens; I shall not be crushed beneath them, but I shall be made to illustrate thy power. My weakness shall glorify thy might’” (MTP 19:389).

17. “Settle the centre, and the circumference is secure.”

“There is neither in heaven nor earth nor hell anything that we need fear when we are once right with God. Settle the centre, and the circumference is secure” (MTP 23:148).

18. “From our worst troubles come our best blessings.”

“From threatening clouds we get refreshing showers; in dark mines men find bright jewels: and so from our worst troubles come our best blessings. . . . The darkest night will turn to a fair morning in due time” (John Ploughman’s Pictures, 140).

19. “Remember that you have not lost your ‘all.’ You still have Christ, and he is ‘all.’”

“You, who have lately lost your loved ones, and you, who have been brought low by recent losses in business, are you fretting over your losses? If so, remember that you have not lost your ‘all.’ You still have Christ, and he is ‘all.’ Then, what have you lost? Yes, I know that you have something to grieve over; but, after all, your ‘light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;’ therefore, comfort yourself with this thought,— ‘I have not really lost anything, for I still have all’” (MTP 50:298, emphasis added).

A Final Blessing

“May each believing soul among you have a deep peace! May all your troublous thoughts come to an end, and every anxious mind be calmed! Peace! Blessed peace” (MTP 47:166).

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