“Faith views the One who orders our circumstances, hope looks beyond the present scene, patience gives strength to endure trials, and love delights in Him whom no circumstances affect. While Elijah set the Lord before him he feared not though a host encamped against him. But when he looked upon the creature and contemplated his peril he thought more of his own safety than of God’s cause. To be occupied with circumstances is to walk by sight, and that is fatal both to our peace and spiritual prosperity. However unpleasant or desperate be our circumstances, God is able to preserve us in them, as He did Daniel in the lion’s den and his companions in the fiery furnace; yea, He is able to make the heart triumph over them, as witness the singing of the apostles in the Philippian dungeon.
Oh, what need have we to cry, “Lord, increase our faith,” for we are only strong and safe while exercising faith in God. If He be forgotten and His presence with us be not realized at the time when great dangers menace us, then we are certain to act in a manner unworthy of our Christian profession. It is by faith we stand (2 Cor. 1:24), as it is through faith we are kept by the power of God unto salvation (1 Pet. 1:5). If we truly set the Lord before us and contemplate Him as being at our right hand, nothing will move us, none can make us afraid; we may bid defiance to the most powerful and malignant.”
~ Arthur Pink, “The Life of Elijah”