Lisa Harper > Quotes

“Here’s the deal, y’all. God. Already. Knows. His people are a hot, sinful mess, so when we simply acknowledge that and repent, He’s waiting with open arms. We don’t have to justify ourselves because Jesus already did that on the cross. So the risk of repentance doesn’t lead to punishment—it leads to the unilateral forgiveness and unconditional affection of our Creator Redeemer. Vegas only wished it had a payout that humongous.”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“Even our deepest disappointments will ultimately prove to be gatekeepers for future delight.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“Every single person on this planet is worth the trouble we might face in the context of sharing Christ with them”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“God’s arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away.1 —Philip Yancey”
― Lisa Harper, Stumbling into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman

“Believing Jesus means you’re willing to risk everything you are and everything you have based on everything He taught and everything He did. It means learning to love Him more than you love your own life.”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“Satan’s strategy is effective because he sprinkles his poisonous brew with just enough veracity that we’ll swallow it.”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“Typically, the louder a voice gets, the bigger the knot in my gut grows. So I have to turn my heart and mind toward our Heavenly Father and ask, “Is this pit in my stomach about today or is it about what already happened in the past or about what I’m afraid might happen in the future?”
― Lisa Harper, Overextended and Loving Most of It: The Unexpected Joy of Being Harried, Heartbroken, and Hurling Oneself Off Cliffs

“I’ve been praying for that same kind of discernment lately. I want to recognize the dangerous, potentially biting characters in my story: the people who create constant emotional debris with their destructive personalities or who refuse to shed the skin of deception, the ones who threaten the God-with-me peace in my life. I’m learning to keep my distance and to pray for snakes, but not make a habit of getting down in the dirt to play with them.”
― Lisa Harper, Stumbling into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman

“We all need reminders that there is a huge difference between coaching from the spiritual sidelines and putting skin in the game. Between advertising for the cause and actually joining it. Between talking about it from afar and getting close enough for it to affect our comfort.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“It was never meant to be a prescribed time and place for us to obsess about doing the appropriate thing at the appropriate moment all while wearing an appropriate outfit.”
― Lisa Harper, Stumbling into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman

“The lesson God engraved on my heart that day was while I didn’t necessarily need the money, she needed to give it. The exchange itself—both the giving and the receiving—illustrates a key characteristic of Christian community. To open-handedly bless others from the riches God has so generously given us and to open-handedly receive blessings from others binds believers together in an interdependent, Jesus-and-others-oriented web of grace.”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“When it feels like He’s not hearing our prayers because we aren’t getting immediate answers, He’s still moving mountains on our behalf.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“We need an untamed Savior because… only a wildly redemptive Jesus can free us from the pain and bondage of past mistakes!”
― Lisa Harper, Fierce Jesus: Leaning into the Only One Strong Enough to Set Us Free

“Fear and disillusionment. Courage and commitment. Intense emotion and unbridled passion. The ultimate risk of life in exchange for undeserved grace and a treasured spot in eternity.”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“More often than not, the pain God allows into our lives isn’t punitive but rather a promotion God’s providence will never take us to a place where His grace won’t sustain us We don’t have to edit our emotions but can instead bring all of us to all of Him Grief is not the opposite of hope but rather proof of it”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“sprinkles”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“Wowzaroonie—what a jaw-drop-inducing, biblical reminder that our Creator-Redeemer is not bound by time and space! That when it feels like He’s not hearing our prayers because we aren’t getting immediate answers, He’s still moving mountains on our behalf.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“I’m so glad you don’t have it all together, Lisa, because if you did God probably wouldn’t use you much here.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“God’s grace is available to everybody. Period. His is an unconditional, wholly inclusive affection. There is no skin color, country of origin, or medical condition that can make you incompatible with the love of Jesus Christ!”
― Lisa Harper, Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts

“How much more amazing is it that the King of all kings condescended from His throne in glory to make grace accessible to sinners like us?”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“As author Barbara Johnson used to say, “We are Easter People living in a Good Friday world!”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“Happy. It sounds like fireworks, smells like roasted marshmallows, and feels like cannon-balling into a cold pool on a hot day, right?”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“Break out those party poppers, y’all—because happiness isn’t simply a possibility for believers; it’s God’s lavish and oh-so-accessible gift to help us live and love well in a world that’s often less than kind.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.” And sure enough, as soon as she had touched him, the bleeding stopped and she knew she was well! (vv. 28–29 tlb) Her interaction with the Great Physician could’ve/should’ve ended right there because she’d gotten what she came for: physical healing. Plus, Jesus was en route to Jairus’s house, a leader in the community, to attend to his dying daughter (vv. 22–24). But instead, Jesus stops in the middle of a seemingly more important mission just to listen to her: The woman, knowing that she was healed, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. Shaking with fear, she told him the whole truth. (v. 33 ncv, emphasis mine) I believe Jesus stopped because, despite her medical cure, He knew her heart still needed care after twelve long years of suffering. So the Lamb of Judah paused for a moment to lean in and listen to one lonely woman’s entire story. Really listening—leaning in and giving our full attention to what someone else is communicating or attempting to communicate—is one of humanity’s most powerful expressions of compassion. Unfortunately, in our digitized, hyperstimulated, selfie and social-media obsessed culture, being actively present while someone else tells their true, unfiltered story seems to be going the way of the Dodo bird. I’m sure, like me, you’ve found yourself awkwardly trailing off and not finishing a complete thought because the person in front of you stopped paying attention as soon as their phone started vibrating. Leisurely, device-less conversation between two people seems to becoming passé.”
― Lisa Harper, The Sacrament of Happy: What a Smiling God Brings to a Wounded World

“Getting the life we hoped for isn't the true source of our peace, contentment, and joy.....it's actually the promise of our Savior's presence in those seasons we didn't hope for that gives us unshakable peace, even beyond our understanding.”
― Lisa Harper, A Jesus Shaped Life

“entitlement is the archenemy of creativity, passion, and joy.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“Doing life with other people is a divine gift . . . community is significant and life-giving and sacred.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“Which proves that epic failures don’t have the power to sabotage our futures because God’s kingdom purposes have never been intrinsically linked to human capacity or a lack thereof.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“They’re proof positive that no sin is powerful enough to catapult us beyond the reach of God’s grace.”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him. Nahum 1:7”
― Lisa Harper, Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional