Esther > Esther's Quotes

“Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn fast.”
― William Nicholson, Shadowlands: A Play

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
― C.S. Lewis

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
― C.S. Lewis

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.”
― William Nicholson, Shadowlands: A Play

“When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”
― Billy Graham

“God has given us two hands--one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing.”
― Billy Graham

“A real Christian is the one who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.”
― Billy Graham

“This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience - it looks for a way of being constructive.
Love is not possessive.
Love is not anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own ideas.
Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage.
Love is not touchy.
Love does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.
Love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that stands when all else has fallen.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman

“When the time comes to die, make sure that all you have to do is die!”
― Jim Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot

“I have one desire now - to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor

“God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful -- "severe mercies" at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

“We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

“God is God. Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity

“Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael

“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

“To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss. The great symbol of Christianity means sacrifice and no one who calls himself a Christian can evade this stark fact.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, These Strange Ashes

“Choices will continually be necessary and -- let us not forget -- possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline: The Glad Surrender

“But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.”
― francis chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

“We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You've probably heard the expression 'I believe in God, just not organized religion'. I don't think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.”
― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

“It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But, it is absolutely vital to grasp that he didn’t call you there so you could settle in and live your life in comfort and superficial peace.”
― Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

“God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.”
― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

“Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.”
― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

“‎"Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?”
― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

“Love is a commitment that will be tested in the most vulnerable areas of spirituality, a commitment that will force you to make some very difficult choices. It is a commitment that demands that you deal with your lust, your greed, your pride, your power, your desire to control, your temper, your patience, and every area of temptation that the Bible clearly talks about. It demands the quality of commitment that Jesus demonstrates in His relationship to us.”
― Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah

“True Joy is not the absence of pain but the sanctifying, sustaining presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the pain”
― Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free

“I have learned that in every circumstance that comes my way, I can choose to respond in one of two ways: I can whine or I can worship! And I can't worship without giving thanks. It just isn't possible. When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances, there is a fragrance, a radiance, that issues forth out of our lives to bless the Lord and others.”
― Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy

“God lives in the place of praise. If we want to be where He is, we need to go to His address.”
― Nancy Leigh Demoss

“There is no man on the face of the earth who can satisfy the deepest longings of a woman's heart--God made us in such a way that we can never be truly satisfied with anything or anyone less than Himself”
― nancy leigh demoss