Too often, people who need the cheers the most get them the least. Every day, everyone you know faces life with eternity on the line, and life has a way of beating people down. Every life needs a cheering section. Every life needs a shoulder to lean on once in a while. Every life needs a prayer to lift them up to God. Every life needs a hugger to wrap some arms around them sometimes. Every life needs to hear a voice saying, “Don’t give up.
God’s primary will for your life is not the achievements you accrue; it’s the person you become.
What do we do in the dark night? We do nothing. We wait. We remember that we are not God. We hold on. We ask for help. We do less. We resign from things, we rest more, we stop going to church, we ask somebody else to pray because we can’t. We let go of our need to hurry through it. You can’t run in the dark.
The Spirit never just flows in us; he always flows through us so that others might flourish as well.
Very often God’s will for you will be “I want you to decide,” because decision making is an indispensable part of character formation. God is primarily in the character-forming business, not the circumstance-shaping business.
God says, “I have set before you an open door,” not “I have set before you a finished script.
My main job is to remain connected to God. When my primary focus is being present with him, everything else has a way of falling into place.
If I think God’s aim is to produce rule-followers, spiritual growth will always be an obligation rather than a desire of my heart.
I am so wrapped up in the hurt I have received that I do not notice the hurt I inflict.
They devote themselves every day to what Jesus taught: to prayer, to fellowship, to breaking of bread together. They shared what they owned; they served each other’s needs. Ethnic barriers came down as they became known by the way they loved each other. It’s a different community, devoted to a Jesus way of life with God.
For much of our lives, we live in the shallows. Then something happens – a crisis, a birth, a death – and we get this glimpse of tremendous depth. My soul becomes shallow when my interests and thoughts go no further than myself. A person should be deep because life itself is deep.
May your expectations all be frustrated, May all of your plans be thwarted, May all of your desires be withered into nothingness, That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and can sing and dance in the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To be fully known and fully loved is the most healing gift one human being can give another.
I don’t know why some prayers get yeses and some prayers get nos. I know the anguish of a no when you want a yes more than you want anything in the world. But I don’t know why. I only know that in the Cross God’s no to his only Son was turned into God’s yes to every human being who ever lived.
The world diverts my soul-attention when it encourages me to think of myself more as a victim than as a human. I am so wrapped up in the hurt I have received that I do not notice the hurt I inflict.
Joyful people make us come alive.
Failure isn’t falling down; failure is refusing to try.
Whether with an entire day, or periods of time set aside every day, your soul needs rest. Not a change of scenery or a spiritual retreat – those are fine and may contribute to rest. But to remain healthy, our souls need solitude with no agenda, no distractions, no noise. If someone asks you what you did in your “time apart,” the correct response should be, “Nothing.” Doing nothing does wonders for the soul.
It’s not what’s on the other side of the door that gives me confidence to go through; it’s the one who goes with me.
Here’s the deal: The more you think you’re entitled to, the less you will be grateful for. The.