“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
“Spiritual emptiness is a universal disease.”
―
Rick Warren
“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.”
―
Rick Warren
“Christlikeness is not produced by imitation, but by inhabitation.”
―
Rick Warren
“Glory in your weaknesses. Paul said, “I am going to boast only about how weak I am and how great God is to use such weakness for his glory.”
―
Rick Warren
“Living to create an earthly legacy is a shortsighted goal. A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy. You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.”
―
Rick Warren
“A young man in his twenties wrote, “I feel like a failure because I’m struggling to become something, and I don’t even know what it is. All I know how to do is to get by. Someday, if I discover my purpose, I’ll feel I’m beginning to live.”
―
Rick Warren
“Este es el secreto para una vida de adoración: Hacer todo como si lo hicieras para Jesús. Una paráfrasis lo expresa así: «Toma tu vida cotidiana, la vida de todos los días —tu descanso, tus comidas, tu trabajo, y tus idas y venidas— y ponlas como una ofrenda ante Dios».”
―
Rick Warren
“Dios no es tan solo el punto de partida en tu vida, sino la fuente de ella. Debes ir a la Palabra de Dios, no a la sabiduría del mundo, para descubrir el propósito de tu vida.”
―
Rick Warren
“Only secure people can serve. Insecure people are always worrying about how they appear to others. They fear exposure of their weaknesses and hide beneath layers of protective pride and pretensions. The more insecure you are, the more you will want people to serve you, and the more you will need their approval.”
―
Rick Warren
“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.”
―
Rick Warren
“But there is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.”
―
Rick Warren
“Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at that moment. People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much — and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.”
―
Rick Warren
“When you live in light of eternity, your focus changes from “How much pleasure am I getting out of life?” to “How much pleasure is God getting out of my life?”
―
Rick Warren
“The ultimate goal of dynamic Bible study is application, not just interpretation. We do not want to settle for understanding alone; we want to apply the biblical principles to our daily living. Dwight L. Moody, a great evangelist and Christian educator of the late nineteenth century, used to say, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.” It was given to change our character and bring it more into conformity with Jesus Christ. All of our efforts in Bible study are valueless if in the final analysis we do not change and become more like Jesus. We must “not merely listen to the word,” but we are to “do what it says” (James 1:22).”
―
Rick Warren