In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day

Here is a novel thought: What if we actually did what they did in the Bible? What if we fasted and prayed for ten days? What if we sought God with some ancient intensity instead of spending all our energy trying to eliminate His surprises?

The issue is this: How big is your God?

remember what Qui-Gon said to Anakin: “Your focus determines your reality.” At first, my kids were somewhat stupefied. But I explained to them that how they feel is a result of what they focus on.

So here is my advice: Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer.

When I’m not in prayer mode, I have good ideas. But when I’m in prayer mode I have God ideas. And I’d rather have one God idea than a thousand good ideas.

God is in the résumé-building business. He is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities.

One of my sacred duties as a parent is to help my children unlearn their fears.

“Your way of explaining events to yourself determines how helpless you become, or how energized, when you encounter everyday setbacks as well as momentous defeats.”3

Big dreams are the by-product of a big God, and they make big people in the process. The goal isn’t accomplishing the dream God has given you. It’s who you become in the process.

Courage is doing what is right regardless of circumstances or consequences.

God never promised us a risk-free existence. Bad things happen to good people. And good things happen to bad people. And that causes tremendous angst unless we look at life through the eyes of eternity.

Is anybody else tired of reactive Christianity that is more known for what it’s against than what it’s for?

The creation story is a microcosm of what God wants to do in your life. He hovers over the chaotic situations, ready to create order and beauty. He wants to fill the void.

Maybe a relationship with God doesn’t simplify our lives. Maybe it complicates our lives in ways that they should be complicated.

Complications are often a by-product of blessing.

Sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible. And He usually does it just in the nick of time. I think that pattern reveals one dimension of God’s personality: God loves impossible odds.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

Trials have a way of helping us rediscover our purpose in life.

But I think God is more concerned about sins of omission—those things we could have and should have done. It’s holiness by multiplication. Goodness is not the absence of badness. You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Those who simply run away from sin are half-Christians. Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what’s wrong.

Neurologically speaking, that is what we do when we study Scripture. We are literally upgrading our minds by downloading the mind of Christ.

God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great but because nothing is too small for Him either.

I think there are basically two types of people in the world: complainers and worshipers. And there isn’t much circumstantial difference between the two. Complainers will always find something to complain about. Worshipers will always find something to praise God about. They simply have different default settings.

there are two kinds of people in the world: creators and criticizers. There are people who get out of the boat and walk on water. And there are people who sit in the boat and criticize water walkers.

The anointing is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do. I want the best God can do!

Generally speaking, you are probably never going to be more than 80 percent certain. Waiting for greater certainty may cause you to miss an opportunity.

God wants to anoint you to do what you do and to help you do it well.

If you wait for perfect conditions before you seize an opportunity, you’ll be waiting till the day you die. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

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

Too many of us are tentatively playing the game of life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.

Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you’ve been wounded.

Most of our problems aren’t the by-product of our circumstances but of our perspective on our circumstances.

Faith is unlearning the senseless worries and misguided beliefs that keep us captive. It is far more complex than simply modifying behavior. Faith involves synaptogenesis. Faith is rewiring the human brain.

Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain. We pray that God will keep us out of pits and away from lions. But if God answered our prayer, it would rob us of our greatest opportunities. Many of our prayers would short-circuit God’s plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances.

Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think about you and more and more about what God thinks about you.

Maybe it’s time to stop putting God in a box the size of your cerebral cortex. Maybe it’s time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His.

I have a simple definition of success: Do the best you can with what you have where you are.

He is always working behind the scenes, engineering our circumstances and setting us up for success.

Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem.

God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.

Jesus commends the two men who take a risk and make a return. But the servant who buries his talent and breaks even is called “wicked.” Why? Because he wasn’t willing to take a calculated risk.

Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God.

How you think about God will determine who you become.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. MARK TWAIN

The way to upgrade our minds is to download Scripture.

Opportunities often look like insurmountable obstacles. So, if we want to take advantage of these opportunities, we have to learn to see problems in a new way—God’s way. Then our biggest problems may just start looking like our greatest opportunities.

The defining moments will double as the scariest decisions. But you’ve got to face those fears and begin the process of unlearning them.