Charles stanley quotes

In our friendships we have to be wise that we choose godly people to be our friends. Somebody might say, well does that mean that you should never have a lost person as your friend? No, I wouldn't say that. But you can't have the same intimacy with a lost person that you can with a godly person in whom the Holy Spirit is living.

Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what God sees.

If the Lord says to give more than you think you are able to give, know that He will provide for you. Whether things are sailing smoothly or the bottom has dropped out, He is always trustworthy. You can count on Almighty God to keep His everlasting Word.

If we have built on the fragile cornerstones of human wisdom, pride, and conditional love, things may look good for a while, but a weak foundation causes collapse when storms hit.

One of Satan's most deceptive and powerful ways of defeating us is to get us to believe a lie. And the biggest lie is that there are no consequences to our own doing. Satan will give you whatever you ask for if it will lead you where he ultimately wants you.

God’s Word is absolutely true. You may not understand how God is going to bring about what He’s promised you, but He is keeping every promise that He has ever made. He will never deceive you or disappoint you, and He will never change His mind about what He’s told you.

God has ways of shaking the world when He is at work. He literally caused the ground to quake when Jesus died on the cross.

Prayer is an act of faith. Just by praying to God, you are declaring our trust in someone other than yourself. Your faith is increased as you pray and watch how God answers your prayers. God says in Jeremiah 33:3, Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. God is awesome in power and there is never a time when He is not beside you. He is faithful and holy.

Helping someone come to a saving knowledge of Christ is the greatest achievement possible.

The gate is small because truth guards the entrance. The way is narrow because the Lord protects us with wise boundaries.

We are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.

Since God knows our future, our personalities, and our capacity to listen, He isn't ever going to say more to us than we can deal with at the moment.

No one enjoys feeling weak, whether it is emotionally, spiritually or physically. There is something within the human spirit that wants to resist the thought of weakness. Many times this is nothing more than our human pride at work. Just as weakness carries a great potential for strength, pride carries an equally great potential for defeat.

Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.

No matter how far we may wander from the Lord’s perfect will for our lives, we are always welcome back.

The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose in us.

Basically, there are two paths you can walk: faith or fear. It's impossible to simultaneously trust God and not trust God.

Adversity is always unexpected and unwelcomed. It is an intruder and a thief. But in the hands of God, adversity becomes the means through which HIS Supernatural Power is demonstrated.

In times of defeat, we never know how close we are to victory. In every event of failure, God has planted a seed of success.

Suffering prepares you by training you to trust God and know that He is always at work in your life.

If a person becomes content with what is average, minimally acceptable, or satisfactory, she will rarely exert the effort or work toward something that is truly excellent or outstanding.

I certainly respect other people's opinions, but I would not vote for a woman to be the pastor of a church.

Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there's a choice I make. God would never discourage me. He would always point me to himself to trust him. Therefore, my discouragement is from Satan. As you go through the emotions that we have, hostility is not from God, bitterness, unforgiveness, all of these are attacks from Satan.

God is responsible for the consequences of our obedience, WE are responsible for the consequences of our disobedience

God blesses us so that we might bless others!

Whatever brings you to your knees in weakness carries the greatest potential for your personal success and spiritual victory.

God allows us to dace difficulties so that our faith will be stretched and refined. The trials we face provide an excellent opportunity for us to declare our dependence on God and not on ourselves. The way we win the battle with discouragement is by humbling ourselves before God and telling Him that we need Him. There is only one way to do this, and it is through prayer.

Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servanthood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake at night nursing a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves.

When friends abandoned him, Paul asked God not to count their actions against them. He followed the example of Jesus, who prayed for the Father to forgive His persecutors. What's your response when friends let you down? Forgiveness is the choice that pleases God every time.

Kindness is not something that we put on for certain occasions, like a piece of jewelry; rather, it is an attribute of God's that He desires to reproduce in us.

When we take our eyes off the whirl of day-to-day activity and concentrate on honoring Him and following in His way, we find a consistent peace that carries us through both plenty and poverty.

Focusing on difficulties intensifies and enlarges the problem. When we focus our attention on God, the problem is put into its proper perspective and it no longer overwhelms us.

You may go through difficulty, hardship, or trial—but as long as you are anchored to Him, you will have hope.

The difficulties we face originate from one of three sources. Some are sent to us by the Lord to test our faith, others are the result of Satan's attacks, and still others are due to our own sinful choices.

Take steps each day to be sure your life expresses commitment to Jesus.

God wants you to understand the Word of God. The Bible is not a mystery book. It's not a book of philosophy. It's a book of truth that explains the attitude and heart of almighty God.

You always have God's undivided attention.

His voice leads us not into timid discipleship but into bold witness.

Of all the things Christ wants for us, loving Him and focusing our attention on Him are the most important.

To become God's mighty servants, we must decide whether we will base our life on His priorities or the world's. The two are incompatible.

Nobody else can make us discouraged; it is a choice that we alone make when facing disappointments.

From the world’s perspective, there are many places you can go to find comfort. But there is only one place you will find a hand to catch your tears and a heart to listen to your every longing. True peace comes only from God.

You will never go wrong obeying God.

God has loved you since before you were born-so much so that 2,000 years ago, He sent His Son Jesus to die in your place.

Jesus set an example for us to follow: a life of loving, obedient service.

We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.

God's plan for enlarging His kingdom is so simple - one person telling another about the Savior. Yet we're busy and full of excuses. Just remember, someone's eternal destiny is at stake. The joy you'll have when you meet that person in heaven will far exceed any discomfort you felt in sharing the gospel.

The bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don't even like the word.

The Bible is clear that those who fail to heed the Lord's discipline - whether nations, cities, or individuals - suffer devastating consequences.

All of us have areas of weakness. God wants these character flaws to show us how totally dependent we are upon Him. When we handle them properly, they drive us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord. But uncontrolled weakness wreaks havoc in a person's life.

Our problems may stay, our circumstances may remain, but we know God is in control. We are focused on His adequacy, not our inadequacy.

A man can preach no better than he prays.

To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, an experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.

You must never sacrifice your relationship with God for the sake of a relationship with another person.

Disappointments will come and go, but discouragement is a choice that you make.

We must remember that the shortest distance between our problems and their solutions is the distance between our knees and the floor.

Wisdom is the capacity to see things from God's viewpoint.

When we stray from His presence, He longs for you to come back. He weeps that you are missing out on His love, protection and provision. He throws His arms open, runs toward you, gathers you up, and welcomes you home.

When trouble comes, focus on God's ability to care for you.

The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord, listen to Him, and allow Him to permeate our spirits.

Believing you can achieve a goal is vital to reaching a goal.

We must never limit God's ability to turn even the worst, most vile experience in our lives into something productive, beneficial and positive.

Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.

With God, there is always a future.

Renewing the mind is a little like refinishing furniture. It is a two-stage process. It involves taking off the old and replacing it with the new. The old is the lies you have learned to tell or were taught by those around you; it is the attitudes and ideas that have become a part of your thinking but do not reflect reality. The new is the truth. To renew your mind is to involve yourself in the process of allowing God to bring to the surface the lies you have mistakenly accepted and replace them with truth. To the degree that you do this, your behavior will be transformed.

Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.

Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing the goals God has helped you set.

Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we're waiting for.

God wants us to seek Him more than anything else, even more than we seek answers to prayer. When we come to God in prayer, sometimes our hearts are so full of what we want that we leave God out. Our minds become consumed with the gift rather than the giver.

The reason so many of us struggle so intensely with adversity is that we have yet to adopt God's perspective and priorities.

Stop for a minute and think about how you typically interact with God. If prayer time is dominated by your own talking, some adjustments may be in order. Just as the Lord spoke to David, God also has many things to say to you, if you'll simply let Him speak.

A Christian has no right being in a fight unless it's a spiritual fight.

Attitude and the spirit in which we communicate are as important as the words we say.

If God has positioned us in a certain place, we must leave all the details to Him.

When we learn from experience, the scars of sin can lead us to restoration and a renewed intimacy with God.

People don't like the idea of consequences. They want to be able to live their life freely and do what they want to do without any consequences. And we know that's just not the way life is.

Regardless of the source of our pain, we must accept that God knows, God loves, and God is at work.

Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice.

God will never direct us to be prideful, arrogant and unforgiving, immoral or slothful or full of fear. We step into these things because we are insensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit within us.

We are to forgive so that we may enjoy God's goodness without feeling the weight of anger burning deep within our hearts. Forgiveness does not mean we recant the fact that what happened to us was wrong. Instead, we roll our burdens onto the Lord and allow Him to carry them for us.

An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.

Your life is going to be determined by your prayer life.

The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth

When God speaks, oftentimes His voice will call for an act of courage on our part.

God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.

From Genesis to Revelation, here's the central message: God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, the Triune God is in control of all things, period.

God's voice is still and quiet and easily buried under an avalanche of clamour.

The time you spend alone with God will transform your character and increase your devotion. Then your integrity and godly behavior in an unbelieving world will make others long to know the Lord.

Yieldedness is vital in listening to what He has to say.

God will never reject you. Whether you accept Him is your decision.

God wants to cast out the fear and doubt in your life. Go before Him right now and say, "Lord, this is what I am afraid of ..."

The Scriptures contain many stories of people who waited years or even decades before the Lord's promises came to pass. What modern believers can learn from the patience of biblical saints like Abraham, Joseph, David, and Paul is that waiting upon the Lord has eternal rewards.

Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He's sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.

If you tell God 'no' because He won't explain the reason He wants you to do something, you are actually hindering His blessing. But when you say 'yes' to Him, all of heaven opens to pour out His goodness and reward your obedience.

God is looking for imperfect men and women who have learned to walk in moment-by-momen t dependence on the Holy Spirit. Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears, and failures. Believers who have become discontent with 'surviving' and have taken the time to investigate everything God has to offer in this life.

Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time.

God will never tell us to do something that gratifies the flesh.

Adversity is not simply a tool. It is God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity becomes easier to bear.

If you put your faith in yourself and your abilities, intellect and dreams, then your foundation is only as strong as you are.

Dealing with adversity is like preparing for surgery. By putting our faith in what the doctor has said, we believe we will be better off if we have the surgery. But that does not make it any less painful. By submitting to the hand of a surgeon, we are saying that our ultimate goal is health, even at the cost of pain. Adversity is the same way. It is a means to an end. It is God's tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives.

Every test, every trial, every heartache that's been significant, I can turn it over and see how God has turned it into good no matter what.

It is not the trials in your life that develop or destroy you, but rather your response to those hardships.

When we surrender to His timing, He does mighty things in and for us, according to His will and His timing. God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

The Bible reveals the Father's overall plan for the world and provides general guidelines for life. But how can we know His specific plans for us? Listening to God is essential to walking with God.

As children of a sovereign God, we are never victims of our circumstances.

Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness.

Sin and accountability aren't popular messages. Yet being trendy and well liked is not the point. We're here to carry out the work and mission of God, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

We are the product of our thinking, so it is important that we choose carefully where to focus our mental energy.

Often times God demonstrates His faithfulness in adversity by providing for us what we need to survive. He does not change our painful circumstances. He sustains us through them.

The amount of time we spend with Jesus - meditating on His Word and His majesty, seeking His face - establishes our fruitfulness in the kingdom.

The blood that poured from Christ's wounds bought your salvation. If you want to truly value what He did, think of Him hanging on that cross just for you. With that thought in your mind, consider how you should live. He gave Himself freely for you; are you giving yourself fully to Him?

As God's children, we are not to be observers; we're to participate actively in the Lord's work. Spectators sit and watch, but we are called to use our spiritual gifts and serve continually.

Each of us will eventually give away all our earthly possessions. How we choose to do so, however, is a reflection of our commitment to the kingdom of God.

As you walk through the valley of the unknown, you will find the footprints of Jesus both in front of you and beside you.

Behavior is the substance of religion. Belief is the substance of relationship.

Often times God wants us to sit before Him in quietness. He doesn't want us to do all the talking. As Is. 30:15 says "In quiet and confidence will be your strength."

Think about the comfortable feeling you have as you open your front door. That's but a hint of what we'll feel some day on arriving at the place our Father has lovingly and personally prepared for us in heaven. We will finally - and permanently - be 'at home' in a way that defies description.

Perhaps you have been ensnared by a sinful habit that you will not abandon, and your guilt is so overwhelming you are ashamed to approach Christ. Whatever the reason for your broken intimacy with God, there is good news. Jesus waits to embrace you now in the arms of unconditional, divine love.

The Bible tells us that God will meet all our needs. He feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass with the splendor of lilies. How much more, then, will He care for us, who are made in His image? Our only concern is to obey the heavenly Father and leave the consequences to Him.

Wherever you go, God is with you - watching over you, protecting you, and providing the truth you need for every situation. The question is, will you open your heart to His Word, apply it to your life, and allow God to change you so that He can use you in ways far greater than you can imagine?

If you have an anxiety lay it down before The Lord

When you become consumed by God's call on your life, everything will take on new meaning and significance. You will begin to see every facet of your life - including your pain - as a means through which God can work to bring others to Himself.

Thank the Lord for using each person as a tool in your life to deepen your insight into His grace and conforming you to the image of His Son.

There is only one secure foundation: a genuine, deep relationship with Jesus Christ, which will carry you through any and all turmoil. No matter what storms are raging all around, you'll stand firm if you stand on His love.

If the church marries herself to the spirit of the times, she will find herself a widow in the next generation.