14 Quotes to Inspire You to Do Hard Things Today

Editor’s Note: Throughout the years, TheReb has published thousands of articles, each challenging and encouraging Rebelutionaries to do hard things and seek God. But among these posts, some have especially resonated with you, our readers. So over the next few weeks and months, we’re bringing back these classics, reposting our most popular and well-read articles every Thursday. May they encourage and remind you of God’s unchanging truth!

Doing hard things by doing good works and pursuing the kingdom of God is not a new idea.

But when you get into the day-to-day grind of life, it can be tempting to feel alone and grow discouraged.

Yet a great joy of being a Christian in the 21st century is that we have thousands of years of wisdom to look back on. Thousands of years to remind us that we’re not alone. God has been faithful to His people for all of time, and He will continue to be faithful to us.

Instead of choosing self-pity today, I want to inspire, convict, encourage, comfort, and remind you why you’re called to do hard things. That’s why I’ve rounded up 14 quotes to do that.

Before you reflect on these wise words (not written all by Christians but all with application for Christians), consider the words of the wisest Man to ever walk this earth:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)

We can have joy in this day by following Jesus. May that reignite our passion to glorify God by doing hard things right now.

So what will you do today?

Do Hard Things For God’s Glory

Jim Elliot: “Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition.”

Ed Welch: “God is pleased to use ordinary people and ordinary conversations to do most of the heavy lifting in His kingdom.”

Do Hard Things Now

Karen Lamb: “A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

Jonathan Edwards: “I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.”

Just Do It

Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Stephen King: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

Jim Elliot: “Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

C.H. Spurgeon: “The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything.”

Do Hard Things When You’re Unsure of the future

Alex and Brett Harris: “Courage is not the absence of fear. It is rather not letting your fear control your actions.” – Do Hard Things

Sinclair Ferguson: “Be obedient, even when you do not know where obedience may lead you.”

Burk Parsons: “God’s new mercies every morning cover not only today’s burdens but tomorrow’s uncertainties and yesterday’s failures.”

Do Hard Things For the Reward to Come

Oswald Chambers: “If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?” – My Utmost for His Highest

John Piper: “If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.”