Christian Growth Quotes

Christian growth is forgetting about yourself. ~ Gerhard

Christian growth does not involve becoming stronger and stronger, more and more competent every day. It involves becoming more and more aware of how weak and incompetent we are and how strong and competent Jesus was and continues to be for us. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

Growth takes time. God knows that. I know that. And to my surprise, His abundance is mine in the process - not as a prize at the end. ~ Carol Kent

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one's own eyes. ~ Thomas Watson

Christian growth is never measured by a Christian's satisfaction in himself. ~ Tony Reinke

Quote from my book DIVINE INTERRUPTIONS: A BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JOB. Available on Amazon.

"LIFE lessons are so challenging!
God never promised us an easy life, but it's not all darkness and suffering. We have a choice to see things with a positive mind set. Recognizing the negativity in our thinking is the first step toward a perspective transformation. This is a big step in the healing process, and usually produces Christian growth and greater spiritual maturity. ~ Cheryl Zelenka

To Jesus, the Christian life wasn't about being perfect but about being perfected. ~ Ricky Maye

When I came to see that Christian growth doesn't happen by working hard to get something you don't have, but rather it happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you already have, this gospel insight radically transformed my life. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

What does it mean to be inconsiderate? It is most simply a failure to think carefully, to reflect, and to pay attention. It may be living life in the dark, blindly and selfishly following a course without pausing to consider the options. It may be allowing faith to fall into a rut from lack of attention and thoughtlessness. Either way, being inconsiderate prevents growth, quells joy, and leads to a fail use to leave a legacy of eternal consequence. ~ Camilla Camp Williams

The result of these many voices and general lack of agreement on what really are the biblical means to Christian maturity seems to be breeding two kinds of believers. There are some who are not quite sure that they are even on the right track of normal Christian living; there are others who are quite certain that they have arrived at the station. Or, to change the metaphor, there seem to be so many master chefs around that some are so confused by looking only at the various menus that they are starving to death, while others are sampling everything that is offered with resultant indigestion, and a few have sworn allegiance to one and are convinced that all the others are frauds. ~ Charles C. Ryrie

The great triad of enemies for Christian growth contain the world, the flesh, and the devil. ~ R.C. Sproul

The Bible is different because it is the Word of God, by which He speaks to me. Disagreeing with the Bible would be disagreeing with God. So when I read the Bible I want to place myself 'under' it. I want to receive the Scripture in such a way that over time, my thinking, feeling, choosing, believing and behaving will be molded by the Word God is speaking into my life. I don't want to critique the Scriptures; I want them to critique me and change me. ~ Colin S. Smith

Whatever we may mean by 'Christian growth,' it is ultimately this: less faith in me, more faith in God. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

The best tests of my Christian growth occur in the mainstream of life, not in the quietness of my study ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Any self-help program that discourages me from thinking for myself, that is, from tweaking what I've learned to understand myself is suspect. Growth is all about thinking creatively, and I can't very well do that if I take on the role of parrot. ~ Dannye Williamsen

Look in your local Christian Bookstore. You could take most of the books there, throw them into the sea, and not lose anything valuable. The vast majority of them are just placebos that superficially attack trivial problems. During the eras when the church was most holy, Christians had very few books to read, but the ones they did have told them how to have a relationship with God. Most books today don't do that. ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

When I say that God is not a Christian, I am saying that God is not limited as Christians have made Him (It) to be. I need to say right from the outset that I no longer view God as a god or THE God, but just God. Not a He or a She, but more of an "It"
an infinite or Ultimate Creative Intelligence, Reality, or Existence. I use capitol letters to emphasize a superiority I tend to presume upon God. Guess it's a habit with which I am comfortable. ~ Carlton D. Pearson

That's where thinking started, where thinking stopped, where all her prayers so long ago had dried up. She no longer prayed, nor even dreamed of changing her father. Her dreams now played variations on the theme of escape. And they were nothing more than that - just dreams, just play. She'd been alone at the end of her dreams so many times before and never had God helped her escape her father, because God couldn't, because she would never escape her need to love him. ~ Geoffrey Wood

When the urge to knock on a door strikes, it's your soul's desire for forward movement. So knock! ~ Nicole Leigh West

Our discernment of Christian doctrines must include a basic knowledge of the history of the church. ~ Anonymous

Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these. ~ Sam Altman

Christians and Muslims can still get along. On issues such as global warming and helping the poor. ~ Bob Abernethy

I give great thanks to God that he has created a Dalai Lama. Do you really think, as some have argued, that God will be saying: 'You know, that guy, the Dalai Lama, is not bad. What a pity he's not a Christian'? I don't think that is the case - because, you see, God is not a Christian. ~ Desmond Tutu

Totalizing and dangerous views of "American culture" and "nationhood" can be found in current attempts to portray "Christian values" or particular constructions of "family values" as constitutive of "American culture" and "the American way of life." Views of "American culture" that picture American society as comprised of "free individuals," and of American institutions as already fair and egalitarian, obscure the ways in which various forms of institutional discrimination impede the entry and flourishing of members of marginalized groups. ~ Uma Narayan

The truly Christian imagination never lets Jesus Christ out of her sight. ~ Richard J. Foster

The idea of Christian perfection, which began in the ancient monasteries and spread to the world as an ideal, is one of the most appealing, demanding and ultimately hopeless notions of the spiritual life. By definition, only God is perfect - that is, complete and independent unto [God's] self. Humans, on the other hand, are radically imperfect, and that, paradoxically, is welcome news, for the recognition of our incompleteness throws us on the mercy of God and enables us, as Saint Paul stressed, to put up with one another's faults. ~ Donald Spoto

No doubt a man may be saved, like the penitent thief, without having received the Lord's Supper. It is not a matter of absolute and indispensable necessity, like repentance, faith, and conversion. But it is impossible to say that any professing Christian is in a safe, healthy, or satisfactory condition of soul, who habitually refuses to obey Christ and attend the Lord's Table. ~ J.C. Ryle

So many people turn to spiritual thinking only when they experience difficulties, hoping that the sorrow or pain will just miraculously disappear. Usually, they find that the place of suffering -- the place where we are broken in spirit, when accepted and embraced, is also a place of peace and possibility. Our sufferings do not magically end; instead we are able to wisely alchemically recycle them. They become the abundant waste that we use to make new growth possible. ~ Bell Hooks

The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God's Word. ~ Oswald Chambers

Doctors and trainers often see perfectly developed bodies, but nobody can even begin to imagine what a perfect *mind* would be like; that is where the whole range of progress and growth must take place. ~ Hugh Nibley

The truth is that Islam itself was a barbaric reaction against that very humane complexity that is really a Christian character; that idea of balance in the deity, as of balance in the family, that makes that creed a sort of sanity, and that sanity the soul of civilisation. ~ G.K. Chesterton

She was an extension of his dreams. A sprinkling of magic dust, of unfeasible wishes, on his stable existence. The one thing-the one bright, marvelous thing-he wanted more than the world, but didn't deserve. However much he was tortured for her sake, however much blood he had spilled to protect her, the bruises to his body and the thrashings to his sanity, it would never be enough to make a wretch like him worthy of such a miracle. ~ V.S. Carnes

True love heals and affects spiritual growth. If we do not grow because of someone else's love, it's generally because it is a counterfeit form of love. ~ John Bradshaw

She mistrusted the periods of quiet that are essential to true growth. Desiring ~ E. M. Forster

Being a good father to our children requires a few goals:
1. Be an example of personal responsibility
2. Display self-respect
3. Be an example of personal growth, passion, and perseverance
4. Recognize and accept your child's particular gifts and nurture them, not wish they had others
5. Love and respect your wife ~ Charles F. Glassman

The most central and irrational faith among people is the faith in technology and economical growth. Its priests believe until their death that material prosperity bring enjoyment and happiness - even though all the proofs in history have shown that only lack and attempt cause a life worth living, that the material prosperity doesn't bring anything else than despair. These priests believe in technology still when they choke in their gas masks. ~ Pentti Linkola

David is called a man after God's heart. This can be a little confusing when you get into his story, because he's guilty of adultery and murder and cover-up. He's a train wreck as a husband, and he's worse as a dad. But his heart belongs to God. His whole life is immersed in the presence and story of God. What lights him up is to serve God and love God, and when he mess up - and he does - he repents and wants to get right with God again. ~ John Ortberg

A garden is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow. ~ Beth Wiseman

In Christ, it's never too late, you're never too old ... it's never "too anything" for Him to work positive change in your life. ~ Joyce Meyer

Remember, this type doesn't really believe He'll forgive them, by repenting they are trying to earn what they do not think, in any case, He will pay. ~ Geoffrey Wood

Flowing from this union, source of a plenitude of joy, the love of the couple reveals itself through the daily acceptance of the limits and faults of each other and in mutual openness. It is this acceptance in and through gentleness, kindness, forgiveness, confidence and the desire to see shining in the other the warm light of the Spirit of God that becomes the great sign of the merciful love of God for man and His incessant forgiveness. ~ Jean Vanier

Silence embeds thoughts better than speeches. If you are afraid of silence, you are afraid of your thoughts. ~ Rossana Condoleo

How, then,' I hear you ask, 'shall I attain my end, whether it be Christian love, socialism, or American democracy?' Your Christian love and your socialism and your American democracy are what you do each day, your manner of thinking each hour, of embracing your life companion and loving your child; they are your attitude of social responsibility towards your work, and your determination not to become like the crushers of life you so hate. ~ Wilhelm Reich

I don't want euro bonds that serve to mutualize the entire debt of the countries in the euro zone. That can only work in the longer-term. I want euro bonds to be used to finance targeted investments in future-oriented growth projects. It isn't the same thing. Let's call them 'project bonds' instead of euro bonds. ~ Francois Hollande

If ours souls are thirsty, we can draw freely, livng water from the well of salvation. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The more we rely on God, the better our lives will be. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

With his Policraticus (1159), John of Salisbury had become the most famous Christian writer to compare society to a human body and to use that analogy to justify a system of natural inequality. In Salisbury's formulation, every element in the state had an anatomical counterpart: the ruler was the head, the parliament was the heart, the court was the sides, officials and judges were the eyes, ears and tongue, the treasury was the belly and intestines, the army was the hands and the peasantry and labouring classes were the feet. ~ Alain De Botton

Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord. ~ Arthur W. Pink

Marx and Freud are the two great destroyers of Christian civilization, the first replacing the gospel of love by the gospel of hate, the other undermining the essential concept of human responsibility. ~ Malcolm Muggeridge

I'm not saying that suffering is our fault. I believe we suffer because sin has taken hold of the world. And with sin comes selfishness and heartlessness and wickedness. But I also think there will be a day of reckoning, Nick, when God lays out all we've done and judges our actions. That's not as popular to talk about anymore, I suppose. We all like to hear about a God who loves and forgives rewards. But He isn't holy and just if He doesn't deal with all those wrongs. I would never want to stand before God without having done everything in my power to extend His mercy to the people around me whenever I could. ~ Janette Oke

According to the orthodox Christian's Bible, all religions do not lead to God. ~ Fritz Ridenour

To be enriched in the giving, I must at the self-same time be completely depleted by it. For if I am not depleted, I have not given in the first place and therefore I will not be enriched in any place. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

When you get honest with God, you can exchange the fig leaves you used to cover your sin with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. ~ Johnny Hunt