Top 355 Quotes & Sayings by Charles R. Swindoll - Page 6

Those who feed on rumors are small, suspicious souls.

Grace is ours. Let's live it! Deny it or debate it and we kill it.

...the single most important issue in all of life (is) your relationship with the living God... how you can know Him in a personal and meaningful way.

Take charge of your thoughts!

Many seducers clutter the simple message of the gospel with legalistic additions, with convoluted attempts to legitimize moral compromise, and with psychological theories that turn churches into relational support groups instead of houses of worship.

Discipline is training that corrects and perfects our mental faculties or molds our moral character. Discipline is control gained by enforced obedience. It is the deliberate cultivation of inner order.

Remorse is sorrow over being caught and the pain of consequences that follow. Repentance is not being concerned for ourselves but having a contrite heart.

In our rough and rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft and virtually spineless. Not so! Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self-esteem and dignity. Instead of losing, the gentle gain. Instead of being ripped off and taken advantage of, they come out ahead!

The crisis of physical hunger is essentially a crisis of faith. What or whom will you trust to meet your most basic needs? Will you trust the God who made human bodies, or will you seek your own way? (Deuteronomy 8:1-3)

So, you want to be like Christ? Me too. But that kind of godliness won't just happen by hanging around a church or thinking lofty thoughts three or four times a day or learning a few verses of Scripture. It will take more - much more. Disciplining ourselves will require the same kind of focused thinking and living that our Master modeled during His brief life on earth.

God seems to reward us with good, delightful experiences when we move with joy through the less-than-delightful times.

It's not our church; it's God's - it's not our responsibility to run it!

Jesus didn't come to earth to establish a new religion. He came to restore a broken relationship. He came to make the primary, primary again. The secondary activity of obedience to the law of God was always intended to serve the primary activity: to love God and enjoy Him forever. When that is primary, the secondary becomes a labor of love, a joyful, and "easy" burden to bear. (Matthew 11:28-30

Excellence-moral, ethical, personal excellence-is worth whatever it costs.

Any idol, regardless of its beauty or usefulness or original purpose, is to be set aside so that Christ might reign supreme, without a single competitor.

When we attempt to find meaning in the pursuit of pleasure, the commitment to a job, or through plumbing intellectual depths, we all eventually find in each of these pursuits a dead end.

Without a quest, life is quickly reduced to bleak black and wimpy white, a diet too bland to get anybody out of bed in the morning. A quest fuels our fire. It refuses to let us drift downstream gathering debris.

God uses those who seem ill-fitted for a significant life.

Worry erases the promises of God from your mind.

That's what this thing called Christian life is all about, isn't it. Going . . . yet not knowing. As followers of our Lord we believe He leads us in a certain direction . . . or in pursuit of a precise goal.

It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray.

When it seems like that's all there is, remember all you have in Him.

Jesus never commanded believers to produce fruit. Fruit is the purpose of the branch, but it is not the responsibility of the branch. The branch cannot produce anything on it's own. However, if it remains attached to the vine, it will receive life-sustaining sap, nourishment, strength, everything it needs.

Worry is a complete waste of energy. It solves nothing.

Not once does the Bible report that (Jesus) rushed anywhere. He was often busy, but never in a mad dash. And yet He perfectly accomplished all the Father designed for Him to do.

God has not only created each of us as distinct individuals, He also uses us in significant ways.

There are times we need to tell ourselves, "Good job!" when we know that is true.

Worry is characteristic of the heathen, not the Christian.

Boldness in the course of a noble fight is worth the risk... If you stand on truth, you'll only regret your timidity later, but you'll never regret being bold.

Thanksgiving speaks in clear, crisp tones of forgotten terms, like integrity - bravery - respect - freedom - discipline - sacrifice - godliness.

When a person does something, it has the man or woman look about it. It drips with humanity. You can follow the logic of it and see the meaning behind it.

The skeptic may deny your doctrine or attack your church but he cannot honestly ignore the fact that your life has been changed.

When I have a wrong attitude, I look at life humanly. When I have a right attitude, I look at life divinely.

While I wholeheartedly believe in choosing to approach every challenge with a great attitude, I don't mean that we should abandon authenticity and live in fantasyland.

I'm glad . . . that Edison didn't give up on the light bulb. That Luther refused to back down. That Michelangelo kept painting. That Lindbergh kept flying.

When we panic, we instinctively turn to our own internal resources because we doubt Him.

More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was commitment that thinned the ranks.

I don't see life divided into public and private, secular and sacred. It's all an open place of service before our God.

Next time you're faced with a credit-purchase decision, wait. Don't say no necessarily. Just wait. I challenge you to present your need to the Lord before presenting it to a bank, and see what He does with it.

God declared me righteous!

If you're running a 26-mile marathon, remember that every mile is run one step at a time. If you are writing a book, do it one page at a time. If you're trying to master a new language, try it one word at a time. There are 365 days in the average year. Divide any project by 365 and you'll find that no job is all that intimidating.

God has called His creation to find satisfaction in a personal relationship with Him, and stop trying to manage the world by conforming it to our expectations, and to allow Him to govern His creation. He continues to say through an ancient Hebrew worship song, "Be still and know that I am God!

Joy springs from a life lived with eternity's values in view.

Lead with action and let the feelings follow.

GRACE: All you can do is take it.

Sometimes people can't see past us to hear our message. We never have a second chance to leave a first impression.

Good intentions and earnest effort are not enough. Only Jesus can make an otherwise futile life productive.

Rejoicing is clearly a spiritual command. To ignore it, I need to remind you, is disobedience.

To require God to prove that He is able and willing to fulfill His promises would be proof positive that one does not trust Him.

To be used of God. Is there anything more encouraging, more fulfilling? Perhaps not, but there is something more basic: to meet with God.

In spite of our high-tech world and efficient procedures, people remain the essential ingredient of life.

Noise and crowds have a way of siphoning our energy and distracting our attention, making prayer an added chore rather than a comforting relief

Learning more truth is a poor and cheap substitute for stopping and putting into action the truth already learned

The best tests of my Christian growth occur in the mainstream of life, not in the quietness of my study

When each elder or pastor has his will aligned with the Lord's, we waste no time arguing for our own.