Colin S. Smith > Quotes

“When God interrupts your life, He is calling you to follow Him in a new way. By breaking into your settled pattern, He is moving you to a new place where you can make fresh discoveries of His grace. Embracing God’s call is never easy, but this is where the pursuit of a God-centered life begins, and where the shame of a self-centered life is exposed.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Human life is created in God's image, and that makes it sacred.”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“Saint Augustine defined idolatry as worshiping what should be used or using what should be worshiped”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“Grace is more than God opening the door to salvation; it’s God bringing people in.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“God did not love you because of your background, your intelligence, your good looks, your prayers, your ministry, your commitment, your faith, or your good life. God loves you…because He loves you. Let that lead you to worship.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Our culture says ‘live your dream,’ but God calls you to place your dream on His altar and to keep it there at all times. It is good to have hopes and dreams for the future, but we have no rights. There are no certainties. Any dream can become an idol and, if it does, God will bring it down.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“If you can grasp those two truths—you are made in His image and dependent on Him—you will discover a great dignity and at the same time a profound humility.”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“Grace means that God steps into the lives of particular individuals with the purpose and effect of saving them. He needs no permission to do this, nor is He under any obligation to do so.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Idolatry involves putting the things we love in the place of God or seeing God as a means of getting the things that we want, and that's the second great struggle of our lives.”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“Faith does not rest on your ability to feel God’s love, it rests on His ability to keep His promise.”
― Colin S. Smith, Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross

“Sin is a power; wherever it is given room, it will grow in strength, and it will take you where you do not want to go.”
― Colin S. Smith, Unlocking the Bible Story: Old Testament Study Guide 1

“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, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“There will be times in your life when you want to pray but feel so far from God that prayer seems impossible. The flesh will tell you that God is against you, that you have gone too far and that He is no longer interested in you. But faith defies the flesh. It contradicts Satan’s lies. It rises up against defeat, gloom, and despair and finds hope in God.”
― Colin S. Smith

“Explaining temptation by saying “God is testing me” or “Satan is attacking me” positions “me” either as the victim, if I am defeated, or the hero, if I prevail. But confessing that “My heart is desperately wicked” provides no such comforts. It heads off all attempts to shift blame, and cuts down all the pretensions of spiritual pride.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Early on in the Bible story, we will discover the devil taking on the form of an animal. At the center of the Bible story, we will find God taking on the form of a man. The Son of God is the image of God, and so when He took flesh, it was in the form of a man, because man was made in the image of God.”
― Colin S. Smith, Unlocking the Bible Story: Old Testament Study Guide 1

“The heart of the gospel is that Christ has come to save us from the judgment of God.”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“Authentic gospel preaching always engages people with eternal issues.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Repentance is possible only when faith is present and where there is faith, repentance will also be found. Faith gives birth to repentance, and repentance is the evidence of faith.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Living communion with God in which He is real, alive, fresh, and present to your soul energizes a God-centered life.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Repentance means change: Change in what you think, change in what you desire, change in what you do and say. It is the evidence of authentic faith.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“In serving as a pastor for over thirty years, I have seen some remarkable transformations and I’ve seen some big disappointments. I have two observations. First, where there has been lasting change, the common factor, in every case, is that the Word of God has had a significant entrance into the person’s life. Second, where godly change has failed to get started, or has slowly unraveled, the common factor, in every case, is that change has been attempted without significant engagement in the Scriptures.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“God will create a crisis in order to bring his people back to himself. He will withdraw his protection and allow us to live with the consequences of our own choices. This is the way in which God most often deals with persistent sin. If you recognize this cycle in your own life, it means you’re facing a choice between the gods of your imagination and the living god of the Bible. You may feel you’re in control of your gods, but they’re powerless to help you and deeply offensive to God. Only the living god will deliver you...”
― Colin S. Smith, The One Year Unlocking the Bible Devotional

“If you are not serving the Lord, you have put something or someone else in the place that belongs to him. It is of the greatest importance that you be clear and honest about who or what that is. Unlocking the Bible”
― Colin S Smith

“The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature, which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. … It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. 1”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-centered Life

“I am so glad that Jesus does not say, “Practice more spiritual disciplines.” He says, “Come to me…and I will give you rest.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“God’s Word is the living seed that brings new birth. It is the milk that nurtures the new life of a young Christian and the meat that builds the muscle of a mature believer.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Lord, make me less like Jonah and more like Jesus. Save me from being the kind of person who cares more about my comfort, my reputation, and my success than I do about the people You are calling me to serve. Help me to keep all of my dreams on Your altar and be ready at all times to respond with faith and obedience to Your call.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“The God you worship will shape the values you hold, and the values you hold will shape the lifestyle that you choose.”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“When your heart is gripped by the love of God poured out in the cross, and when you see the extent of that love in the propitiation by which Christ became the sacrifice for your sin, bearing wrath and entering hell for you, and when you are convinced that this Christ offers Himself in redeeming love to others who do not yet know Him, a passion will be lit in your heart to pursue a God-centered life.”
― Colin S. Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

“Has what you do for God become more important to you than the Lord Himself?”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life