Mark Batterson Quotes

Most God-ordained dreams die because we are not willing to do something that seems illogical ~ Mark Batterson

If you don't hold out on God, I can promise you this: God will not hold out on you. But it's all or nothing. ~ Mark Batterson

Going all in and all out for the All in All is both a death sentence and a life sentence. Your sinful nature, along with its selfish desires, is nailed to the cross. Then, and only then, does your true personality, your true potential, and your true purpose come alive. After all, God cannot resurrect what has not died. And that's why so many people are half alive. They haven't died to self yet. ~ Mark Batterson

Whatever God wants to do through you, He will do in you first. You've got to be what you want to see. ~ Mark Batterson

We are living in a time where the hearing from God is bombarded by many frequencies and voices. This noise, corrosive in nature, makes it difficult to hear God's voice ... living with more noise means we live less like a disciple. We need a prism. Eric Samuel Timm is a prism. ~ Mark Batterson

Journaling is the difference between learning and remembering. It's also the difference between forgetting and fulfilling our goals. ~ Mark Batterson

The hardest thing about praying hard is enduring unanswered prayers. If you don't guard your heart, unresolved anger toward God can undermine faith. ~ Mark Batterson

The true purpose of prayer is to get into God's presence so He can outline His agenda for us. ~ Mark Batterson

Finally, here's the great news: Prayer covers a multitude of sins. You don't have to do everything right as a parent, but there is one thing you cannot afford to get wrong. That one thing is prayer. You'll never be a perfect parent, but you can be a praying parent. Prayer is your highest privilege as a parent. There is nothing you can do that will have a higher return on investment. In fact, the dividends are eternal. ~ Mark Batterson

No one can glorify God like you or for you. ~ Mark Batterson

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. PROVERBS 16:9 ~ Mark Batterson

Don't whine. Don't complain. And don't check out. Make the most of the situation. Do little things like they are big things. Keep a good attitude. And faithfully carry out your current obligations. If your job isn't exciting, then bring some excitement to the job. One of the greatest acts of worship is keeping a good attitude in a bad situation. And doing a good job at a bad job honors God. It will also open doors of opportunity down the road. It did for Nehemiah. ~ Mark Batterson

100 percent of the prayers I don't pray won't get answered. ~ Mark Batterson

Do you trust that God is for you even when He doesn't give you what you asked for? ~ Mark Batterson

You can either avoid making mistakes and play not to lose, or you can make the most of every opportunity and play to win. ~ Mark Batterson

May you keep dreaming until the day you die. May imagination overtake memory. May you die young at a ripe old age. ~ Mark Batterson

If you want to break the sin habit, you'd better establish a prayer habit. ~ Mark Batterson

Jesus proclaimed the favor of God in His very first sermon. Then He sealed the deal with His death and resurrection. Favor is a function of surrender. If we don't hold out on God, God will not hold out on us. ~ Mark Batterson

Anytime I'm not reading my Bible or praying, I feel like I'm wasting my time. [Mark's brother-in-law, Matt ________, speaking] ~ Mark Batterson

If God doesn't answer the way you want, you still need to praise through. That is when it's most difficult to praise God, but that is also when our praise is most pure and most pleasing to God. ~ Mark Batterson

If you plant yourself in one place and let your roots grow deep, there is no limit to what God can do. ~ Mark Batterson

Sometimes God shows up. Sometimes God shows off. ~ Mark Batterson

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was comforted by a piece of poetry given to her by a friend: They are not dead who live in lives they leave behind: In those whom they have blessed they live a life again.2 ~ Mark Batterson

The genealogy of blessing always traces back to God-ordained risk. ~ Mark Batterson

Your prayers for your children are the greatest legacy you can leave. ~ Mark Batterson

But what if, instead of spending all of our energy making plans for God, we spent that energy seeking God? ~ Mark Batterson

Following Jesus is a verb. ~ Mark Batterson

Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell and taking back enemy territory that belongs to God.

I'm afraid we've reduced righteousness to the absence of wrongness, but goodness is not the absence of badness. You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Remember the parable of the bags of gold? Breaking even is bad. You've got to ante up everything. ~ Mark Batterson

The healthiest and holiest people are the people who laugh at themselves the most. Failure helps us take God more seriously and ourselves less seriously. ~ Mark Batterson

Look in the rearview mirror long enough & you'll see that God has purposely positioned you everywhere you've been-even when it seemed you'd taken a wrong turn. ~ Mark Batterson

If your deepest feelings are reserved for something other than Almighty God, then that something other is an emotional idol... if you get more excited about material things than the simple yet profound fact that your sin was nailed to the cross by the sinless Son of God, then you're bowing down to Tammuz. ~ Mark Batterson

Your ability to see failure as a necessary stepping stone directly correlates with your ability to dream bigger and dream better. ~ Mark Batterson

Uniqueness isn't a virtue. It's a responsibility. ~ Mark Batterson

But remember this: without a crucifixion there can be no resurrection! ~ Mark Batterson

Society's goal is to make us less foolish. From the cradle to grave the pressure is on: "Be normal!" Our inner fool may be shackled and caged by a world made to suppress it, but Jesus came to free the fool. ~ Mark Batterson

And if you need to read that sentence again, no shame. It's complicated - as complicated as the sovereignty of God. Yet as simple as if. Gustave Eiffel did not build his tower so Lora and I could kiss on top of it. Nevertheless, his if made it possible. And it's your ifs that open doors of opportunity for others, most of whom you won't meet on this side of eternity. But make no mistake about it, every little if makes an exponential difference across time and eternity. History ~ Mark Batterson

If you're in a spiritual slump, let me give you a prescription: go on a mission trip.33 There is no better or sure way of coming out of the cage of routine. It's a cure-all. ~ Mark Batterson

The Bible is the place where God bears His soul. ~ Mark Batterson

God wants us to get where God wants us to go more than we want to get where God wants us to go. ~ Mark Batterson

In fact, the death of a dream is often a subtle form of idolatry. We lose faith in the God who gave us the big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help. We go after dreams that don't require divine intervention. We go after dreams that don't require prayer. And the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all our right brain can imagine is supplanted by a god - lowercase g - who fits within the logical constraints of our left brain. ~ Mark Batterson

Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life that is more fun than a surprise party or surprise gift or surprise romance. In fact, prayer turns life into a party, into a gift, into a romance. ~ Mark Batterson

When we pray, we relieve ourselves of responsibility. We let go and let God. We take our hands off and put our concerns into the hands of Almighty God. And trust me, He can handle whatever we put in His hands. ~ Mark Batterson

You can take Psalm 84:11 to the bank: No good thing does God withhold from those who walk uprightly. ~ Mark Batterson

If you are BIG ENOUGH for your dream, your dream isn't BIG ENOUGH for God. ~ Mark Batterson

I live by the maxim, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. That how you change someone's life forever. ~ Mark Batterson

Email helps me keep in touch with my family. I wouldn't know what my extended family was doing every day if we weren't emailing each other. ~ Mark Batterson

One of the most paralyzing mistakes we make is thinking that our problems somehow disqualify us from being used by God. Let me just say it like it is: If you don't have any problems, you don't have any potential. Here's why. Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you've been wounded. ~ Mark Batterson

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of His grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace. Every day should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone. - JERRY BRIDGES ~ Mark Batterson

One reason many of us never get an answer to our prayers is that all we do is pray. ~ Mark Batterson

Second-degree faith is resurrection faith. It's a faith that refuses to put periods at the end of disappointments. It's a faith that believes that God can reverse the irreversible. ~ Mark Batterson

The healthiest, holiest, and happiest people on the planet are those who laugh at themselves the most. ~ Mark Batterson

...people can go to church every week of their lives and never go all in with Jesus Christ. I'm afraid we've cheapened the gospel by allowing people to buy in without selling out. We've made it too convenient, too comfortable. We've given people just enough Jesus to be bored but not enough to feel the surge of holy adrenaline that courses through your veins when you decide to follow Him no matter what, no matter where, no matter when. ~ Mark Batterson

I want to go after dreams that are destined to fail without diving intervention. ~ Mark Batterson

The path of least resistance never gets us where we want to go. Shortcuts always end up being cul-de-sacs. The key to spiritual growth is the willingness to go out of your way for God. You will find God in uncomfortable places at inconvenient times. But if you go out of your way for God, God will go out of His way for you. Crash the party! ~ Mark Batterson

We usually focus on what we're doing or where we're going, but God's primary concern is who we're becoming in the process. ~ Mark Batterson

No matter how many wrong turns we've taken and no matter how many detours we've been down, it's God's grace that gets us back onto the parade route. ~ Mark Batterson

You don't have to do everything right as a parent, but there is one thing you cannot afford to get wrong. That one thing is prayer. You'll never be a perfect parent, but you can be a praying parent. Prayer is your highest privilege as a parent. There is nothing you can do that will have a higher return on investment. In fact, the dividends are eternal. Prayer turns ordinary parents into prophets who shape the destinies of their children, grandchildren, and every generation that follows. ~ Mark Batterson

You can delegate a lot of things, but you can't delegate PRAYER. I'd rather have one GOD idea than a thousand GOOD ideas. ~ Mark Batterson

We give people political labels, sexual labels, and religious labels. But in the process, we strip them of their individuality and complexity. Prejudice is pre-judging. It's assuming that bad stories end badly, but Jesus is in the business of turning bad beginnings into happily ever afters.
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God cannot give up on you. It's not in His nature. His goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. All you have to do is turn around. All you have to do is crash the party! ~ Mark Batterson

In essential things, unity. In nonessential things, freedom. In all things, love. ~ Mark Batterson

You go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you. Wherever you are, God has put you there; He has a purpose in your being there. Christ who indwells you has something He wants to do through you where you are. Believe this and go in His grace and love and power. ~ Mark Batterson

Test by getting out of a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus uttered one of the craziest commands in Scripture: "Come." Peter risked far more than wet feet. The ~ Mark Batterson

Who you become is determined by how you pray. ~ Mark Batterson

I think you often say more by saying less. And interestingly enough, I mean, Jesus really set the standard. I mean, he could say more with fewer words than anybody. Most of the parables were less than 250 words. And, boy, did he have some one-liners just packed with truth. ~ Mark Batterson

Embrace relational uncertainty. It's called romance. Embrace spiritual uncertainty. It's called mystery. Embrace occupational uncertainty. It's called destiny. Embrace emotional uncertainty. It's called joy. Embrace intellectual uncertainty. It's called revelation. ~ Mark Batterson

Pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you." But there are others, such as, "Criticize by creating," "Thou shalt offend Pharisees," and "Catch people doing something right. ~ Mark Batterson

...one good decision can totally change the trajectory of our lives. And that one good decision will lead to better decisions. But it starts by making the right decision when no one is looking.

There is a past cause and future effect to every decision that goes way beyond what is discernible in the here and now. Decisions have long and often complex genealogies. And every decision is a genesis moment that has the potential to radically alter not just our destiny but the course of human history as well. ~ Mark Batterson

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.6 ~ Mark Batterson

G. K. Chesterton said that his goal in life was to take nothing for granted - not a sunrise, not a smile, not a flower, nothing. That is a truly wonderful approach to life. Don't take anything for granted. Truly appreciate every minute that you have to live. My near-death experience has helped me be better at that. If I hadn't almost died, I wouldn't have figured out how to live. ~ Mark Batterson

God cannot reveal His faithfulness until we exercise our faith. But because Abraham went all in, God was able to reveal Himself as Jehovah-jireh, God our Provider. ~ Mark Batterson

Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do. ~ Mark Batterson

If you let fear dictate your decisions, you will live defensively, reactively, cautiously. Living by faith is playing offense with your life. ~ Mark Batterson

praise is a higher dimension of faith. ~ Mark Batterson

Your prayers are prophecies. You can write the future of your family with your prayers ~ Mark Batterson

When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness. ~ Mark Batterson

Faith is unlearning this senseless worries and misguided beliefs that keep us captive. It is far more complex than simply modifying behavior. Faith is rewiring the human brain. We are literally upgrading our minds by downloading the mind of Christ. ~ Mark Batterson

Hundred pounds. Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on. It doesn't always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them. When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on the shoulders of Him who carried the cross to Calvary. After ~ Mark Batterson

If the kingdom of God had departments, we'd want to work in research and development. We felt like Jesus didn't hang out at the synagogue, he hung out at wells. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. Let's not wait for people to come to us, let's go to them. ~ Mark Batterson

Don't seek miracles. Follow Jesus. And if you follow Jesus long enough and far enough, you'll eventually find yourself in the middle of some miracles. ~ Mark Batterson

Psychologists call this phenomenon the contrast effect. Simply put, how you see anything depends on your reference point. One way or the other, your focus will determine your reality. ~ Mark Batterson

...there is nothing you possess that wasn't given to you by God. It's His prerogative to give. And it's His prerogative to take away. But there is one thing that can never be taken from you, and that is Jesus Christ. And if you have Jesus, then you have everything you will ever need for all of eternity.

Everything - Jesus = Nothing
Jesus + Nothing = Everything

It's that simple. ~ Mark Batterson

Please read prayerfully what I'm about to write. When God puts a passion in your heart, whether it be relieving starvation in Africa or educating children in the inner city or making movies with redemptive messages, that God-ordained passion becomes your responsibility. And you have a choice to make. Are you going to be irresponsibly responsible or responsibly irresponsible? ~ Mark Batterson

A relationship begins when we open the front door, but it doesn't end there. He knocks on the closet doors too! Jesus doesn't just want in. He wants all in. ~ Mark Batterson

Albert Einstein said it best: Science without religion is lame, and conversely, religion without science is blind. ~ Mark Batterson

We give up too easily. We give up too soon. We quit praying right before the miracle happens. ~ Mark Batterson

More often than not, the only thing between you and your dream is a rational excuse. ~ Mark Batterson

God, find us on our knees because we know that when we get our knees, You extend Your powerful right hand. ~ Mark Batterson

The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory ~ Mark Batterson

Disappointment is like dream defibrillation. If we respond to it the right way, disappointment can actually restore our prayer rhythm and resurrect our dreams. ~ Mark Batterson

We pray as if God's chief objective is our personal comfort. It's not. God's chief objective is His glory. ~ Mark Batterson

I'm pretty intentional about being highly invested in my kids' lives. ~ Mark Batterson

Don't try to manufacture your own miracles. Don't try to answer your own prayers. Don't try to do God's job for Him. Stay humble. Stay patient. Stay focused. Keep circling. ~ Mark Batterson

Long before God laid the foundation of the earth, He anticipated and provided for everything we'd ever need. You just need to give Him an opportunity to prove Himself faithful. ~ Mark Batterson

God said, 'Let there be light.'

Here's a paraphrase:

Let there be electromagnetic radiation with varying wavelengths traveling at 186,282 miles per second. Let there be radiowaves, microwaves, and X-rays. Let there be photosynthesis and fiber optics. Let there be LASIK surgery, satellite communication, and suntans. Oh, and let there be rainbows after rainstorms.

'Let there be light.'

These are God's first recorded words.

This is God's first recorded miracle.

Light is the source of vision; without it we can't see a thing. Light is the key to technology; it's how we can talk to someone halfway around the world without so much as a second's delay because light can circle the globe seven and a half times a second. Light is the first link in the food chain; no photosynthesis equals no food. Light is the basis of health; the absence of light causes everything from vitamin D deficiency to depression. Light is the origin of energy; in Einstein's equation E = MC squared, energy (E) is defined as mass (M) times the speed of light (C) squared. The speed of light is the constant. And light is the measuring stick for space-time; a meter is defined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Light is the alpha and omega of everything, and that includes you. ~ Mark Batterson

At some point in our lives, we all need someone who believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. ~ Mark Batterson

We will face some problems we cannot solve, some situations we cannot change. That's when we may feel like panicking, but it is the time to stand still and wait for the Lord's deliverance. ~ Mark Batterson

We've lost the wow of God because we've lost the woe of God. His perfect holiness helps us truly appreciate His amazing grace. ~ Mark Batterson

Just as one decision can change your destiny, so can one prayer. If you were to map out your spiritual history, you would find countless answers to prayer at key intersections along the way. Before you were even born, even named, many of you had parents and grandparents who prayed for you. At critical ages and stages, family and friends interceded on your behalf. And thousands of complete strangers have prayed for you in ways you aren't even aware of. The sum total of those prayers is your prayer genealogy. ~ Mark Batterson

change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. ~ Mark Batterson

Submission is the art of compensating for your weakness by playing to each other's strengths. ~ Mark Batterson