“God is not a cruel slave driver or a bully who uses brute force to coerce us into submission. He doesn’t try to break our will, but woos us to himself so that we might offer ourselves freely to him. God is a lover and a liberator, and surrendering to him brings freedom, not bondage. When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that he is not a tyrant, but a savior; not a boss, but a brother; not a dictator, but a friend.”
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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.”
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Rick Warren
“But God’s presence in your life has nothing to do with your feelings. Your emotions are susceptible to all kinds of influences, so they are often unreliable. Sometimes the worst advice you can get is “Do what you feel.” Often what we feel is neither real nor right. Your emotional state can be the result of memories, hormones, medicines, food, lack of sleep, tension, or fears. Whenever I start to feel anxious about a situation, I remind myself that fear is often False Evidence Appearing Real.”
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Rick Warren
“You didn't create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for.”
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Rick Warren
“Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love — God and people. Life minus love equals zero.”
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Rick Warren
“El estudio de la Palabra de Dios debe dirigirse a su aplicación a nuestra vida, con el resultado de que las Escrituras nos cambien para que nos conformemos más a la voluntad de Dios.”
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Rick Warren
“The Daniel Plan is designed to cut cravings, satisfy your appetite, and teach you to listen to your body.”
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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.”
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Rick Warren
“Cuando la Palabra de Dios cambia nuestra vida y nos hace más como Jesús, descubrimos cuál es el verdadero propósito de nuestra existencia, qué es el verdadero gozo y qué significa que Dios cambie el mundo a través de nosotros.”
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Rick Warren
“Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.”
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Rick Warren
“Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose. On the other hand, passion dissipates when you lack a purpose. Just getting out of bed becomes a major chore. It is usually meaningless work, not overwork, that wears us down, saps our strength, and robs our joy.”
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Rick Warren
“The first thing on Dr. Amen’s master to-do list, the first thing he sees each day, is his gratitude list. Rather than just writing down a few things, he keeps a running tab on what he is grateful for, looks at it every day, and adds to it as joyful moments occur.”
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Rick Warren
“Spiritual maturity is becoming like Jesus in the way we think, feel, and act. The more you develop Christlike character, the more you will bring glory to God. The Bible says, “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
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Rick Warren
“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).”
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Rick Warren
