The way to think about self-denial is to deny yourself only a lesser good for a greater good... In other words, Jesus wants us to think about sacrifice in a way that rules out all self-pity.-John Piper, Desiring God 1996, p. 202

Pleasure-seeking, as we learn from experience, is a barren business; happiness is never found till we have the grace to stop looking for it and to give our attention to persons and matters external to ourselves.-J. I. Packer

Revenge indeed seems often sweet to men, but oh, it is only sugared poison, only sweetened gall. Forgiving enduring love alone is sweet and blissful and enjoys peace and the consciousness of God’s favor. By forgiving it gives away and annihilates the injury. It treats the injurer as if he had not injured and therefore feels no more the smart and sting that he had inflicted.- William Arnot, The Parables of our Lord, 1884.

Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"  There are seasons when the brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never does really forsake us.  It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking.  We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of God's face from His Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused Him?  In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief; in His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season.  O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God's face, but art now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee.  God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the luster of His grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Savior have been when He exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"-C. H. Spurgeon