“The most difficult area to surrender for many people is their money. Many have thought, “I want to live for God but I also want to earn enough money to live comfortably and retire someday.” Retirement is not the goal of a surrendered life, because it competes with God for the primary attention of our lives. Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money”14 and “Wherever your treasure is, your heart will be also.”
―
Rick Warren
“Every parent knows that delayed obedience is really disobedience.”
―
Rick Warren
“contentment is an expression of faith in the goodness of God. It says, “God, I believe you love me and know what’s best for me.”
―
Rick Warren
“The only really happy people are those who have learned how to serve.”
―
Rick Warren
“If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about, what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made.”
―
Rick Warren
“Great opportunities may come once in a lifetime, but small opportunities surround us every day.”
―
Rick Warren
“Because God is with you all the time, no place is any closer to God than the place where you are right now.”
―
Rick Warren
“Gratitude asks, “Why me? Why do I get all that I have?” David modeled this kind of gratitude when he prayed, “Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”15 Years later, his son would write, “It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.”
―
Rick Warren
“When God puts his Spirit inside you, your body becomes a temple of God, a residence for his love. So let me ask you this: If you saw someone vandalizing or damaging a temple dedicated to God, wouldn’t you consider that a crime? Of course! But you abuse and vandalize God’s temple, your body, when you deprive it of rest and sleep, overeat, put too much stress on it, and fail to take care of it.”
―
Rick Warren
“You are as close to God as you choose to be. ”
―
Rick Warren
“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.”
―
Rick Warren
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”
―
Rick Warren
“Life is a struggle, but what most people don’t realize is that our struggle, like Jacob’s, is really a struggle with God! We want to be God, and there’s no way we are going to win that struggle.”
―
Rick Warren
“If you are a member of a small group or class, I urge you to make a group covenant that includes the nine characteristics of biblical fellowship: We will share our true feelings (authenticity), forgive each other (mercy), speak the truth in love (honesty), admit our weaknesses (humility), respect our differences (courtesy), not gossip (confidentiality), and make group a priority (frequency).”
―
Rick Warren
“Betsy: "Do you have daddy issues, Warren?"
Warren: "Dad was supportive, intelligent, read to me as a kid, left me a trillion dollars. It's hard to complain.”
―
Rick Warren