The spiritual tipping point is when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change. Sadly, too many of us get comfortable with comfort. We follow Christ to the point of inconvenience, but no further. That’s when we need a prophet to walk into our lives, throw a mantle around our shoulders, and wake us up to a new possibility, a new reality. We need a prophet to boldly confront Plan B and call us back to Plan A.
God wants to do so much more than simply forgive your sin. He wants to leverage your past regrets for His eternal purpose.
As Edison is credited with saying, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” We all want to be successful, but most of us aren’t willing to do what those who are successful did to attain it. We want success without sacrifice, but you can’t have one without the other!
If you let fear dictate your decisions, you will live defensively, reactively, cautiously. Living by faith is playing offense with your life.
Too often we pray ASAP prayers – as soon as possible. We need to start praying ALAT prayers – as long as it takes.
When we enter into a covenant relationship with God, we tend to focus on the fact that we are legally and morally bound to God, but God is also legally and morally bound to us. The gospel demands that we give all of ourselves to God, but when we do, God gives all of Himself to us.
Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to keep you safe. He died to make you dangerous – a threat to the enemy. He died so that you could make a difference for all eternity.
When we lose our sense of wonder, what we really lose is our soul. Our lack of wonder is really a lack of love.
The blessings of God will complicate your life, but unlike sin, they will complicate your life in the way it should be complicated.
Psychologists call this phenomenon the contrast effect. Simply put, how you see anything depends on your reference point. One way or the other, your focus will determine your reality.
Joy is not getting what you want. It’s fully appreciating what you have. And it starts with the basics, like water.
Prayer is the way we write the future.
Live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about.
Jesus loved, praised, and rewarded one thing: desperation for God that superseded decorum.
When you pray regularly, you never know when God will show up or speak up. Today could be the day. When you live in prayer mode, you live with holy anticipation. You know that coincidences are providences. Any moment can turn into a holy moment. God can invade the reality of your life at three o’clock one afternoon and change everything.
If you aren’t hungry for God, you are full of yourself. That’s why God cannot fill you with His Spirit. But if you will empty yourself, if you will die to self, you’ll be a different person by the time you reach the last page of this book.
At the end of your life, your greatest regret won’t be the things you did but wish you hadn’t. Your greatest regret will be the things you didn’t do but wish you had.
Never underestimate the power of a single prayer. God can do anything through anyone who circles their big dreams with bold prayers. With God, there is no precedent, because all things are possible.
But God always has a holy surprise up His sovereign sleeve. And when we pray, God throws surprise parties!
The hands-down most important spiritual discipline is getting into God’s Word on a daily basis. When you open the Bible, God opens His mouth.