Top 779 Quotes & Sayings by Joel Osteen - Page 13

What you expect is what you will get.

We keep a lot of humor and laughter in the home. A lot of times these days, people let the stress of life take the joy from the home. When you can laugh and you can have joy, that's very healthy. Victoria is easy going. She's very spontaneous and fun. I can hear her laughter all through the house. It sets the tone for the house. I like someone who can laugh. The second thing is respect. We just do our best. We don't always agree with each other but we make the decision that we want to treat each other with respect.

If we don't forgive ourselves for mistakes we've made-and everybody's made their choices, some worse than others-we'll never experience the good life God has in store.

There is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don't know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel. I think one of the most difficult things is every Sunday I am up there ministering, and so you have to have a fresh word, you have to be practical, you need to keep people's attention and so that comes around every seven days.

When u have this spirit of excellence, u do the right thing always :even if no one is watching you.

When thoughts tell you it’s too late, dismiss them. You haven’t dreamed your best dream. You haven’t run your best race.

I am the sum total of what I have been confessing through the years.

[ Billy Graham ] is a hero to us all. His life of integrity. Somebody that can stick with it for that long and just stick with his message. What I love about Dr. Graham is he stayed on course. He didn't get sidetracked.

I just want to continue to grow and be open to what God wants to do. I guess my main goal is just to continue to reach people the best I can, hopefully help impact their lives and just change culture for better.

I want to be blessed so I can build orphanages. Blessed so I can build hospitals and do other things with our finances.

You're never going to please everyone - you might as well be who God made you to be.

I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity.

Don't live worried, frustrated or upset because of what somebody did or what didn't work out. Come back to a place of peace. It's not going to work against you; it's going to work for you.

I just wanted to get the message that God had put into my heart into another form, because I knew the print media would reach a different group of people.

Every setback is a setup for a comeback!

I just think that only God will judge a person's heart.

That's it. I'm going to start making the right choices.

I have always believed. I grew up, you know, my parents were a good Christian people. They showed us love in the home.

Marriage is a commitment, not a feeling.

Don't confuse small with insignificant.

I believe that all the churches are going to continue to grow. I think faith in America is at an all-time high. And I think as we continue to help people and to change with the time, to be relevant and practical.

People have the right to their opinion and you have the right to ignore it.

There's probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have some good works.

I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything...

I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe.

I think we use God's word. I think the principles that you hear Dr. Phil and some of those others talk about many times are right out of the Bible.

I was reading in the Bible and one translation says that Jesus said that if you publicly will acknowledge me before people, I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven. So that is a big part of these meetings like Night of Hope, giving people an opportunity to publicly say, "Jesus, I believe you are the messiah, you're Christ, you're my Lord."

I don't believe we are supposed to go through life defeated and not having enough money to pay our bills or send our kids to college. When I hear some of that, I think that is not who I am, he doesn't know me or what I teach. I always talk about God rewards obedience. When you follow His way, the Bible says that His blessings will chase you down and overtake you.

Don't be intimidated by the size of your problem or the size of your dream. God will see to it that it is finished completely.

You must forgive the people who hurt you so you can get out of prison. You'll never be free until you do. Let go of hose wrongs they've done to you. Get that bitterness out of your life. That's the only way you're going to truly be free. You will be amazed at what can happen in your life when you release all that poison.

I don't think it's that hard [to lead a Christian life]. To me it's fun. We have joy and happiness.

I believe there's a heaven you know. Afterwards, there's, you know, a place called hell. And I believe it's when we have a relationship with God and his son Jesus and that's what the Bible teaches us. I believe it.

The Scripture says that God blesses where men walk in unity, so we just thought it's good for us to come together as Democrats, Republicans; believers, nonbelievers, all different walks of life and say hey, we are here to celebrate the goodness of God.

Back in Bible days, there were these famous schools of the prophets, but some of the ones Jesus chose didn't come through that route - and not to say that they weren't good, but I'm comfortable.

I think that Bible principles will help anybody.

I try to teach people that I believe God wants us to be positive toward ourselves, meaning that, you know what, I like the way I look, I like the way I sound, I'm happy with what I'm doing in my career - and not always be beating ourselves down.

I've always been an encourager at heart.

The Gospel is called the good news. My message is a message of hope, that's God's [message] for you.

I feel like when I stay focused on encouraging people, and giving them hope, and helping them live their everyday life, I think that's where I can have the most impact.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it's the real test of your character and of your faith to say, things are not going our way, but I'm still being good to people; I'm still attending church; I still have a good attitude. I think that's how you pass those tests.

I see people - they won't be negative toward other people, but inside they're negative toward themselves, and I think that holds us back.

I encourage people in a lot of my messages that you've got to make the most of every day.

I think sometimes you just lose your focus, and I think that's easy to do when you start getting more fame, more money, more power.

We deal with people that are going through divorces and that are facing life-threatening illnesses, and I'm giving them hope. And to me, I don't think there's anything "lite" about that.

There are a lot of decisions we pass up on because we think, "You know what? That's just going to build - you know, maybe that's going to build me and not build the ministry and what I'm trying to do." So we pass up on a lot of opportunities.

I tell people all the time, preached a couple Sundays about it. I'm for everybody. You may not agree with me, but to me it's not my job to try to straighten everybody out.

If prosperity means God wants us to be blessed and healthy and have good relationships then yes, I'm a prosperity teacher. But if it's about money, no, I never preach about money. I probably stay away from it more than normal because televangelists get a bad name. People put me in that category because I do believe that God does want us to be happy, healthy, and whole.

I'm not beating people over the head, and I'm saying that there are good things in store - you can make it in life. Most of the stuff that I minister [is] not real complicated deep things.

I like to start my day off every morning, take the first half hour and just search my own heart, see if I'm on the right course, try to be honest with myself - am I doing this for the right reasons?

I'm trying to teach people how to live their everyday lives, and so I do focus on it, probably not as much as some people would like.

I feel like what's come out of me is the gift God has given me just to encourage people, to help them know that there's a better life.

Let's start affecting our whole city, and maybe we can affect the whole nation, the whole world. I'd like to affect it with the fact that God is a good God and He's on your side and He's got a good plan for you and when you put your hand in His, great things can happen.

When my father died, it sounds kind of simple but I just had the desire to step up and pastor the church. It was what I was supposed to do. I just took that step of faith.

So many people talk about themselves: "I'm unattractive, my mind's so slow, and I can't do this." And you know what I tell them? "God didn't make a mistake when He made you. You need to see yourself as God sees you."

When I took over from my father, he came from the Southern Baptist background, and back 40-50 years ago, there was a lot more of that.I don't believe - maybe it was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to encourage them.

I see God as my heavenly father, like my earthly father, as loving and kind. Yes, he disciplined me, he helped me make good decisions, but I knew my dad was always there for me. If I made a mistake, I wouldn't run from my dad, I'd go to him.

My daddy tried to get me up to speak for the 17 years that I worked behind the scenes, but I never had the desire. Naturally, I was nervous and kind of shy. I just didn't want to do it.

I'm not perfect, but I think that I've done good to stay focused on what I'm called to do.

I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.