Inspirational Quotes by Gary Thomas

“The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency.”3 I AM TOLD OVER AND OVER IN SCRIPTURE THAT MY DUTY AS A CHRISTIAN IS TO BECOME MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS CHRIST.”

“How do you know if you’re in an infatuation? Here are the neurological markers according to Dr. Helen Fisher, a preeminent biological anthropologist who has written on the topic: • The lover focuses on the beloved’s better traits and overlooks or minimizes flaws. • Infatuated people exhibit extreme energy, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, impulsivity, euphoria, and mood swings. • One or both of the partners develops a goal-oriented fixation on winning the beloved. • Relational passion is heightened, not weakened, by adversity; the more the relationship is attacked, the more the passion grows. • The lovers become emotionally dependent on the relationship. • Partners reorder their daily priorities to remain in contact as much as humanly possible, and they even experience separation anxiety when apart. • Empathy is so powerful that many report they would “die for their beloved.” • An infatuated person thinks about their lover to an obsessive degree. • Sexual desire is intense, and the relationship becomes marked by extreme possessiveness.”

“Prayer pushes eternity back into our lives, making God ever more relevant to the way we live our lives.”

“It marks prayer as the heart of our devotion, the constant awareness of God’s presence, our consistent submission to his will, and our frequent expressions of adoration and praise.”

“One can do many external deeds of love and still hold back the really precious gift, the inner self. This gift can be given only through communication.”3”

“If a woman essentially abandons her family to ambitiously serve God, she will likely display the same lack of compassion and empathy for others as she does for her own family, who feel her absence keenly.”

“Getting married is agreeing to grow together, into each other, to virtually commingle our souls so that we share a unique and rare bond.”

“Our motivation and our thoughts about our actions become as important as the actions themselves.”

“We realize it’s not about what we get out of our marriage but about what we become in our marriage.”

“To become a servant is to become strong spiritually. It means we are free from the petty demands and grievances that ruin so many lives and turn so many hearts into bitter cauldrons of disappointment, self-absorption, and self-pity.”

“This season in your life can be so productive spiritually if you use it to allow God to break you, shape you, and remake you,” she told him. “We’re always looking at what our spouses have done wrong, but God wants to deal with our own hearts first.”

“ANY SITUATION THAT CALLS ME TO CONFRONT MY SELFISHNESS HAS ENORMOUS SPIRITUAL VALUE.”

“The desire for ease, comfort, and stress-free living is an indirect desire to remain an “unseasoned,” immature Christian.”

“You are imitating Jesus Christ and taking on the nature of a servant, which is your calling as a Christian.”

“Would I rather live a life of comfort and remain immature in Christ, or am I willing to be seasoned with suffering if by doing so I am conformed to the image of Christ?”

“Our souls are wired for what we will never enjoy until Eden is restored in the new heaven and earth. We are built with a distant memory of Eden.”8”

“Knowing why we are married and should stay married is crucial. The key question is this: Will we approach marriage from a God-centered view or a self-centered view? In a self-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met. In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator.”

“More than seeing marriage as a mutual comfort, we must see it as a word picture of the most important news humans have ever received — that there is a divine relationship between God and his people.”

“To grow in the midst of difficulties, we must rip open the bags of grain and seeds and pour them out wherever we see fertile ground.”

“In this chapter, we’re going to explore how these various analogies use the experience of marriage to teach us valuable truths about the nature of God.”