Top 739 Quotes & Sayings by Rick Warren - Page 3

The next sentence is one of the most important spiritual truths you will ever learn: God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you're tempted to express the exact opposite quality. Character development always involves a choice, and temptation provides that opportunity.

If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego. You were designed to worship God and if you fail to worship Him, you will create other things (idols) to give your life to. You are free to choose, what you surrender to but you are not free from the consequence of that choice.

Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems.

In deep pain, people don't need logic, advice, encouragement, or even Scripture. They just need you to show up and shut up.

God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.

Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.

To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won't be here long, so don't get too attached.

Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves that allows us to get on with our lives instead of being trapped in the past by resentment.

You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.

For God to mend your broken heart you must give him ALL the pieces. You can't hold any back.

God teaches us to love by putting some unlovely people around us.

Without the grace of Jesus: a hopeless end. With the grace of Jesus: an endless hope.

To begin loving people today, we must close the door on the past. And that cannot happen without forgiveness! Forgive those who have hurt you - for your sake, not because they deserve it.

Living for God's glory is the greatest achievement we can accomplish with our lives.

You are as close to God as you choose to be.

God specializes in giving people a fresh start.

Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.

God doesn't owe us an explanation for everything and actually what I've found is that explanations don't comfort. What comforts is the presence of God, not the explanation of God.

Gods plan isn't a map for your life that you see all at once, but a scroll unrolled a little at a time.

He created the church to meet your five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on. There is no other place on earth where you can find all five of these benefits in one place.

Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up.

God's LOVE is Like an Ocean; You can See its Beginning, but not its end.

The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.

God is much more concerned about your character than your career, because you will take your character into eternity, but not your career.

Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.

Start today by practicing constant conversation with God and continual mediation on his Word. Prayer lets you speak to God; mediation lets God speak to you.

The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have. The more you serve those with no influence, the more influence God gives you. The more you humble yourself, the more you're honored by others.

Regardless of the cause, none of your problems could happen without God's permission.

Great opportunities are often disguised as small acts of service.

If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what's the point?

Great opportunities may come once in a lifetime, but small opportunities surround us every day.

When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when He wants to make a giant oak, He takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process.

Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.

The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.

If you prayed as much as you complain and quarrel, you'd have a lot less to argue about and much more peace of mind.

Don't' call it a failure, call it an education. Some of us are very educated.

God loves to bring good out of bad. He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. Every obstacle is an opportunity. Every problem has potential. Every crisis is an opportunity for ministry. Every hurt God wants to use for His glory.

The only really happy people are those who have learned how to serve.

Temptation always starts in your mind, not in circumstances.

I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: Jesus I believe in you and I receive you.

Other people are going to find healing in your wounds. Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.

God accepts us unconditionally, and in his view we are all precious and priceless. Focus on this and you will not waste any time and effort trying to be someone you're not.

Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be.

God doesn't intend for you to handle all the pain and stress in your life by yourself. We were wired for each other. We need each other.

If you try to serve people, it impresses them. If you try to impress people it irritates them.

Measured against eternity, our time on earth is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever.

Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary.

If you want God to bless you and use you greatly, you must be willing to walk with a limp the rest of your life, because God uses weak people.

Most of the time, it's your thinking, not your talent, that holds you back.

God will never love you any less or more than he does right now because his love is based on who he IS,not what you've done.

You cannot fulfil God's purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans.

Delays are as much a part of God plan as answered prayers. God wants you to trust him.

People are interested by talent. God is impressed by character

It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.

What matters in life is not so much what happens to us, but what happens in us

The first step to becoming what God made you to be is to stop worrying about what others want you to be.

Wearing a mask wears you out. Faking it is fatiguing. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you know you aren't.

Love leaves legacy. How you treated other people, not your wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.

Real security can only be found in that which can never be taken from you - your relationship with God.