Rick Warren Quotes

The fact is, you will never reach your optimum health without paying attention to the spiritual dimensions of your life.

The death of my own son has made me more sensitive. It's made me more compassionate.

It's not just what you eat that matters, it's what eats you. You can have all the right macrobiotics and organic food, but if your body is filled with resentment, worry, fear, lust, guilt, anger, bitterness, or any other emotional disease, it's going to shorten your life.

So don't be troubled by trouble. Circumstances cannot change the character of God. God's grace is still in full force; he is still for you, even when you don't feel it. In

The first misconception is that we confuse fear with humility. We tend to say, "Oh, I could never do that," and we think we're being humble. But that is not humility. That is fear; that is a lack of faith. A truly humble person would say, "With God's help, I can do it. With God's blessing, I will do it. I may not be able to do it on my own, but with God's help I will do it." That's real humility.

I am motivated by the fact that in the next 365 days, 136,000 Californians will die and most of them will go into an eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 2.4 million Americans will die; most of them will go into eternity without Christ. In the next 365 days, 74 million people in the world will go into eternity without Christ and without hope. I can't live with that.

It is not always convenient or comfortable, and sometimes worship is a sheer act of the will--a willing sacrifice.

We often forget that God has emotions, too. He feels things very deeply. The Bible tells us that God grieves, gets jealous and angry, and feels compassion, pity, sorrow, and sympathy as well as happiness, gladness, and satisfaction. God loves, delights, gets pleasure, rejoices, enjoys, and even laughs!2

I'm against redefining marriage historically 5,000 years ... because then it'll be re-defined. What if it's between a brother and a sister?

Living for God's glory is the greatest achievement we can accomplish with our lives.

Now the only way you can serve God on earth is by serving others.

Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber.

Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.

Put Jesus Christ in the driver's seat of your life and take your hands off the steering wheel.

The bible says that all people, not just believers, possess part of the image of God; that is why murder and abortion are wrong.

The way God teaches us to live by faith is He takes away our feelings.

Living in the light of eternity changes your priorities.

Many people are reluctant to show mercy because they don't understand the difference between trust and forgiveness.
Forgiveness is letting go of the past. Trust has to do with future behavior.

Our culture says, "If you don't own it, you won't take care of it." But Christians live by a higher standard: "Because God owns it, I must take the best care of it that I can." The Bible says, "Those who are trusted with something valuable must show they are worthy of that trust.

America was built on rugged individualism, and today that has evolved into a culture of narcissism. But God didn't create you to live for you. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to put aside your selfish ambition.

Everybody wants confidence but you don't find it in self help books. You find confidence in the Holy Spirit.

He created the church to meet your five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on. There is no other place on earth where you can find all five of these benefits in one place.

Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. It defines what you do and what you don't do. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren't. You simply ask, "Does this activity help me fulfill one of God's purposes for my life?

Your net worth is not the same thing as your self-worth. Your value is not based on your valuables.

Spiritual emptiness is a universal disease.

I don't think gay marriage is any threat to marriage. I think divorce is a bigger problem to marriage than anything else.

Love should be your top priority, primary objective, and greatest ambition. Love is not a good part of your life; it's the most important part. The Bible says, Let love be your greatest aim.

This action step should be personal (involving you), practical (something you can do), and provable (with a deadline to do it).

Don't worry about what you don't have if you do have faith!

Those who have hurt you in the past cannot continue to hurt you now unless you hold on to the pain through resentment.

To me, God says, "I've given you this gift of grace, which means you don't earn your way to heaven. You don't work your way to heaven. You simply receive my gift."

How much are you worth? Jesus says, with his arms stretched out on the cross, "I'm willing to die for you, because you mean this much to me."

Your value is not determined by your valuables, and God says the most valuable things in life are not things!

Temptation always starts in your mind, not in circumstances.

Worry is the warning light that shows I've stopped looking to God to meet my needs.

Why you do what you do matters the most to God.

First open your heart, then open your Bible.

Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. ROMANS 11:36 LB

Never again should you wonder what you have to be thankful for.

When you feel nothing, God is teaching you to live by faith.

The secret of endurance is to remember that your pain is temporary but your reward will be eternal.

The problem is that tolerant has changed its meaning. It used to mean 'I may disagree with you completely, but I will treat you with respect. Today, tolerant means - 'you must approve of everything I do.' There's a difference between tolerance and approval. Jesus accepted everyone no matter who they were. He doesn't approve of everything I do, or you do, or anybody else does either. You can be accepting without being approving.

A father, finding time for what is most important is the true marker of a successful person.

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.

It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters.

The Daniel Plan is rooted in a very simple principle: Take the junk out and let the abundance in.

When life doesn't make sense, we can still have peace.

The death, and the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus happened over three days. Friday was the day of suffering and pain and agony. Saturday was the day of doubt and confusion and misery. But Easter, that Sunday, was the day of hope and joy and victory.
You will face these three days over and over and over in your lifetime. And when you do, you'll find yourself asking, as I did, three fundamental questions: Number one, what do I do in my days of pain? Two, how do I get through my days of doubt and confusion? Three, how do I get to the days of joy and victory?
The answer is Easter.

Every time you make a bad choice, it becomes harder to make a good one.

Every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.

My whole goal is just to keep myself motivated. If I'm motivated, if I'm on fire, it's going to catch with somebody else.

Every human activity, except sin, can be done for God's pleasure, if you do it with an attitude of praise.

God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about him. His purpose for your life predates your conception. He planned it before you existed, without your input!

Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution.

People are interested by talent. God is impressed by character

This truth, that I have to please only God, is an important key to becoming resistant to being manipulated by disapproval from others.

What you BECOME on earth matters far more than what you DO. You're taking your character to heaven, not your career.

God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ. He, the Light of the World, illuminates God's nature. Because of Jesus, we are no longer in the dark about what God is really like. The Bible says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory."5 Jesus came to earth so we could fully understand God's glory. "The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory ... a glory full of grace and truth.

When this tent we live in - our body here on earth - is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1 TEV

If a pastor focuses only on teaching, he grows members with big ears and rears but tiny hands and hearts.Service is MODELED not taught.

The ultimate test of faith is not how loudly you praise God in happy times but how deeply you trust him in dark times.

Obviously there have been historically many different theories of the atonement and I think each of them has a part. But I think fundamentally it is the substitutionary understanding that God - Jesus took our payment and you can't understand.

Think about this: What positive changes in your life could happen if you relied on God's unlimited power instead of your limited willpower.

You will not be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, Why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? Why did I waste so much time, energy, and concern on what wasn't going to last?

You can only make a difference by being different.

Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you depending on how you respond to them.

Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.

Paul says that as Christians we can rejoice even in tough times because we have hope and because we know that God is working in our lives.

People ask me, "Are you right wing or are you left wing?" and I always say, "I'm for the whole bird." A one-winged bird didn't ever get off the ground.

Listen: Those who have hurt you in the past cannot continue to hurt you now unless you hold on to the pain through resentment. Your past is past! Nothing will change it. You are only hurting yourself with your bitterness. For your own sake, learn from it, and then let it go. The Bible says, "To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.

Let love be your greatest aim.

Every church is flawed. Still, you'd better learn to love it since it's the only group Jesus said he's taking to Heaven.

Between this day and the next you will give your life to something. The decision on what that will be will shape your destiny.

You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You can't make a life without making mistakes. Relax and learn something

You are most like Christ, when you remain silent under attack.

God sometimes removes a person from your life for your protection. Don't run after them.

The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

We do not have to make the Bible relevant - it already is! But we do have to show its relevance.

Right now, God is inviting you to live for his glory by fulfilling the purposes he made you for. It's really the only way to live. Everything else is just existing.

If God never did anything else for you, he would still deserve your continual praise for the rest of your life because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. God's Son died for you! This is the greatest reason for worship.

God has given us a gift in Jesus Christ. And people don't understand: it's for our benefit. One of the things that says, "For unto you is born this day a savior." They say, "Well, I don't need a savior." Believe me: if you didn't need one, God wouldn't have sent it. Because he wouldn't have wasted the time.

Today we often feel we must "get away" from our daily routine in order to worship God, but that is only because we haven't learned to practice his presence all the time. Brother Lawrence found it easy to worship God through the common tasks of life; he didn't have to go away for special spiritual retreats.

Every parent knows that delayed obedience is really disobedience.

What pleases the LORD more: burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience to his voice? It is better to obey than to sacrifice.

Whose opinion matters most to you? Whoever that person is, is your god. When you value anyone's opinions more than God's, you give that person power and authority that belongs only to God. That creates all kinds of insecurity within you. On the other hand, when God's approval matters the most to you, it sets you free from insecurity, because he will never reject you.

Your past, present, and future are taken care of as you put your trust in Jesus.

In our competitive world we're taught to never quit trying, never give up, and never give in - so we don't hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. Even Christians would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship.

THE HEART OF WORSHIP IS SURRENDER.

You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. Focusing on yourself will never reveal your real purpose. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance and our destiny.

We often confuse our identity with our habits, but the truth is, habits can be changed! Habits are things you do. They are not who you are! You have weaknesses, but you are not your weaknesses. You are a unique creation of God, flawed by your nature and choices, yet deeply loved by God. No man or woman will ever love you as much as God does. His love for you is not dependent on your habits.

Proverbs tells us, "The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped."12 Those who pass along insights get more from God.

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.

Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ. If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe. The Bible promises, "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."23 Will you accept God's offer?

While you're waiting, God's working.

We don't have to make the bible relevant-it is-but we have to show its relevance. What is irrelevant, in my opinion, is our style of communicating it. We are tending to still use the style from 50 years back that doesn't match who we are trying to reach today.

People aren't things to be molded; they are lives to be unfolded. And that's what true leaders do. They unfold the lives of others and help them reach their God-given potential.

Why is this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time? One answer is that life is supposed to be difficult! It's what enables us to grow. Remember, earth is not heaven!

Keep your hope in the Lord and your eyes focused on the hope of Heaven, not just on the here and now.

Genuine surrender says, "Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another's, please don't take it away." This level of maturity does not come easy.