“If you are in a period of discouragement because you are going through a trial and you are asking yourself, “Why is this happening to me?” consider this: Never make a major decision when you are depressed. Often, when we get discouraged, we are tempted to say, “I’m just going to quit” or “I’m going to move” or “I’m going to change jobs” or “I’m going to file for divorce.” Never make a major decision when you are depressed, because at that time your feelings are unreliable and you cannot exercise accurate judgment. Your focus is blurry, and your perspective is distorted. Instead, face the storm head-on and don’t get involved in self-pity.”
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Rick Warren
“Mucho de nuestro estrés se debe al deseo de control total. ¡La vida es una lucha, pero lo que muchas personas ignoran es que la nuestra, como la de Jacob, es en realidad una lucha con Dios! Queremos ser Dios, y de ninguna manera podremos ganar esa lucha. A.W. Tozer dijo: «Muchos aún están confusos, buscando; apenas hacen pequeños progresos porque todavía no se han rendido del todo. Todavía pretendemos dar órdenes y entrometernos en la obra de Dios en nosotros». No somos Dios, y nunca lo seremos. Somos seres humanos. Cuando pretendemos ser Dios acabamos pareciéndonos a Satanás, que pretendía eso mismo. Aceptamos nuestra humanidad con el intelecto, pero no con las emociones. Cuando nos enfrentamos a nuestras propias limitaciones, reaccionamos con irritación, enojo y resentimiento. Queremos ser más altos (o más bajos), más inteligentes, más fuertes, más talentosos, más hermosos y más ricos. Queremos tener de todo y hacer cualquier cosa, y nos disgustamos cuando eso no ocurre. Al darnos cuenta de que Dios dota a otros con las características que no tenemos, respondemos con envidia, celos y autocompasión.”
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Rick Warren
“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”
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Rick Warren
“Get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to — the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness” (Ephesians 4:22 – 24”
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Rick Warren
“Most people fail to realize that money is both a test and trust from God.”
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Rick Warren
“Los problemas nos obligan a mirar a Dios y depender de él más que de nosotros mismos. Pablo testificó de este beneficio: «Nos pareció que estábamos ya sentenciados a muerte y vimos lo inútiles que éramos para escapar; pero eso fue lo bueno, porque entonces lo dejamos todo en las manos del único que podía salvarnos: Dios«.10 Nunca sabrás que Dios es todo lo que necesitas hasta que él sea todo lo que tengas.”
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Rick Warren
“Willpower works for a few weeks, or maybe a month or two at best.”
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Rick Warren
“Then Jesus changed the situation. When he paid for our sins on the cross, the veil in the temple that symbolized our separation from God was split from top to bottom, indicating that direct access to God was once again available.”
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Rick Warren
“Christlikeness is not produced by imitation, but by inhabitation.”
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Rick Warren
“We have become food consumers, not food producers or makers. We have outsourced our cooking to corporations.”
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Rick Warren
“God specializes in turning weaknesses into strengths. He wants to take your greatest weakness and transform it.”
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Rick Warren
“God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements.”
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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
“What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?”
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Rick Warren
“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.”
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Rick Warren
