This contains notable quotes.
The telltale sign that your giftedness is engaged in an activity is that you take joy or satisfaction in doing it.
What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, . . . Jesus asks, ‘Do you love me?’ We ask, ‘Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom?’
My six year study on how God transforms lives and what difference such transformation makes to the individual in the world they influence indicates that the absence of brokenness is the missing link between faith and impact.
Only when we reject everyone but Jesus as the ultimate source of living water for our thirsty souls will we be free to see others as opportunities to put Jesus on display, no matter how they relate to us.
One of the crucial mistakes I’ve made is to judge God by the present condition of my dreams. When my dreams seem to thrive, I figure God is for me and that He must indeed be strong and able. But the test of faith comes when the path to our dreams look like it’s swerving off course. . . . It’s not hard to confuse God’s favor with our personalized version of the American dream. But God’s favor is far bigger than that. It was God’s favor that led Jesus to the cross of Calvary.
Are you willing to let God use your pain to someday help someone else who is hurting? Are you willing to endure knowing that your experience might just save someone else? If you’re looking to impact your world, resolve to let God use your pain and embrace the power of suffering.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe a whole lot of crazy stuff. We believe in a Triune God. We believe in the virgin birth. We believe in the resurrection. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in eternal life. If we’re honest about it, the story of Jesus is either the craziest story ever told or it’s worth giving everything up for, including our fears.
When you want something bad enough, you make the time—regardless of your other obligations. The truth is most people just don’t want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time. Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses.
We fool ourselves if we think balance means giving equal attention to everything in our lives. Balance only happens in dynamic tension. Balance is giving not equal but appropriate attention to each of the various categories of your life . . . each will get the attention and resources necessary to keep it moving toward an intentional outcome.
Of all people in the world, we who belong to Christ should be the most accepting, since we have experienced the grace that the world so urgently needs.
