John Ortberg
sometimes we do not realize how much we have to be grateful for until it is threatened.Collection: Grateful
Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcomes.Collection: Inspirational
Jesus gave the world its most influential movement.Collection: Jesus
There are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God’s counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator.Collection: Mean
In the beginning, we're told, was the word. Every once in a while someone shows up on the planet who is word-obsessed and word-gifted; and the light and darkness get named again. In our day, that someone is Buechner.Collection: Light
One of the most painful aspects of suffering is the loneliness of it. Others may offer support or empathy, but no one can walk the road to Moriah in our place.Collection: Loneliness
We who preach have one tool. We are people of the book.Collection: Book
Ever console or scold people hurt in human relationships that satisfaction comes from God alone? Stop. Adam's fellowship with God was perfect, and God Himself declared Adam needed other humans.Collection: Hurt
The harder you strike it, the deeper it goes.Collection: Strikes
The life of Abraham Lincoln is by most accounts an amazing study in character formation. Yet he was notoriously disorganized; he even had a file in his law office labeled If you can't find it anywhere else, try looking here.Collection: Character
God is so immense that if he were 'too visible,' people would give forced compliance without expressing their heart. So God made it possible, in enormous love, for us to live as if he were not there.Collection: Heart
Significance is about who we are before it is about what we do.Collection: Who We Are
We are too often double espresso followers of a decaf Sovereign.Collection: Espresso
"Sometimes in churches somebody will discover a particular vein of spirituality and seek to recruit others into it, or assume a superior position because they have found certain techniques - but no one actually wants to become like them."Collection: Church
The only cure from sin is by maintaining a vision of God.Collection: Vision
Our beliefs are not just estimates of probabilities. They are also the instruments that guide our actions.Collection: Our Actions
I am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with the particular things I have done as with the aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.Collection: Done
One of the hardest things in the world is to stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother.Collection: Brother
The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he's coming down.Collection: Jesus
Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.Collection: Waiting
The test of love is that it gives even when there is no expectation of a return.Collection: Love Is
Genuine brokenness pleases God more than pretend spirituality.Collection: Spirituality
Sheldon Vanauken wrote that the strongest argument for Christianity is Christians, when they are drawing life from God. The strongest argument against Christianity? Also Christians, when they become exclusive, self-righteous, and complacent.Collection: Christian
The possibility of transformation is the essence of hope.Collection: Essence
The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life.Collection: Jesus
Make your life about something bigger than your life.Collection: Bigger
Having faith does not mean never having doubts or questions. It does mean remaining obedient.Collection: Mean
Prayer allows us to wait without worry.Collection: Prayer
How hard is it for God to get your attention? Do you regularly practice turning aside in your day? That is, taking a moment to listen to God- because God, through the Holy Spirit, really is speaking, because we know, every place is filled with the presence of God. There is not an inch of space, not a moment of time, that God does not inhabit.Collection: Practice
Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation.Collection: Gratitude
God is a God of endless opportunities to do good; the God of the open door.Collection: Opportunity
Many Christians expend so much energy and worry trying not to sin. The goal is not to try to sin less. In all your efforts to keep from sinning, what are you focusing on? Sin. God wants you to focus on him. To be with him. “Abide in me.” Just relax and learn to enjoy his presence. Every day is a collection of moments, 86,400 seconds in a day. How many of them can you live with God? Start where you are and grow from there. God wants to be with you every moment.Collection: Christian
There is no way for a human being to come to God that does not involve surrender.Collection: Doe
We'd like to be humble...but what if no one notices?Collection: Humble
Acceptance is an act of the heart. To accept someone is to affirm to them that you think it's a very good thing they are alive.Collection: Heart
There is a world of difference between being friendly to someone because they're useful to you and being someone's friend.Collection: Differences
Every day you and I walk through God's shop. Every day we brush up against objects of incalculable worth to Him. People. Every one of them carries a price tag, if only we could see it.Collection: Price Tag
It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I am worth dying for.Collection: Thinking
Over and over in the Bible, it is fear that threatens to keep people from trusting and obeying God.Collection: Godly
Imagine watching all that God might have done with your life if you had let him.Collection: Done
In a contagious world,we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those who are suffering, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient or comfortable. But only when you get close enough to catch their hurt will they be close enough to catch your love.Collection: Hurt
The goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in the joyful awareness of the presence of God. Prayer becomes real when we grasp the reality and goodness of God's constant presence with 'the real me.' Jesus lived his everyday life in conscious awareness of his Father.Collection: Jesus
For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.Collection: Faith
The Bible does not say you are God’s appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced.Collection: Doe
Leadership is the art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand.Collection: Art
Who you become while you're waiting is as important as what you're waiting for.Collection: Waiting
For the soul to be well, it needs to be with God.Collection: Soul
Willpower is trying very hard not to do something you want to do very much.Collection: Trying
Will you keep going when you don't know why? When you can't get any answers that would make the pain go away, will you still say, 'My Lord,' even though his ways are not clear to you? Will you keep going-with all the grace and grit and faith you can muster-and live in hope that one day God will set everything right. Will you trust that God is good? ... Ultimately, the choice everyone faces is the choice between hope and despair. Jesus says, 'Choose hope.'Collection: Jesus