(Un)Qualified: How God Uses Broken People to Do Big Things

by Steven Furtick

Insecurity, comparison, manipulation, pretense—they all come from a wrong understanding of what it means to be approved and qualified by God.

1.12.18

“It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6, NLT).

1.12.18

Humility—true humility—isn’t putting yourself down. It’s recognizing that you owe everything to God. It’s stepping into your destiny based not on who you are or what you can do but on who God is and what he will do through you.

1.12.18

I told him I was sorry for making it look like the starting point of a relationship with God was buying into a list of restrictions.

1.18.18

God seems to be saying, “Come as you are.” Too often the message we project is “Change who you are, and then you can come.”

1.18.18

Look at every human soul Jesus encountered, from the disciples he handpicked, to the sinners he ate dinner with, to the thief he forgave on the cross. Jesus saw the best in people at their worst. He met them in their messes, in their realities, in their most desperate moments. He loved them and believed in them when there was nothing lovable or admirable about them.

1.19.18

God is giving us the gift of identity. His identity.

1.21.18

The idea that we can find ourselves without first finding God is a fallacy. It is ignorance and arrogance masquerading as self-enlightenment. “Discovering yourself” is an immensely popular pastime in our culture. But on its own it’s an endeavor that is doomed to fail.

1.21.18

I agree that what we do is important. But who we are is even more important. What we do always follows who we are—or who we think we are.

1.21.18

The Enemy’s biggest win isn’t when he gets you to sin. He wins biggest when he gets you to lose sight of God’s acceptance of you. When he convinces you that your righteousness and relationship with God hang on your actions, you stay in a spiral of shame.

1.21.18

The Christian walk is not a finish line. It’s not a goal or an achievement. It’s an ongoing relationship with Jesus. It’s a progression of growing and changing, of embracing and replacing, of listening to God’s voice and living out who he says we are. It’s a process, and it will last the rest of our lives.

1.24.18

I think the pain of our mistakes can actually be a gift to help us realize our potential for change.

1.24.18

Our relationship with God must not become primarily a means to get to our goals. When our priorities are right, our goals become a means to grow closer to God. And whether we are hitting all our goals or not, if we are learning to rely on God more, we are accomplishing the ultimate goal.

1.24.18

Comparison is a silent killer. It steals our joy and undermines our relationships. It causes us to criticize events we should celebrate, reject people we should learn from, and resent ideas we should embrace.

1.28.18

God’s qualification of us doesn’t depend on other people. He doesn’t leverage the failure of others to make us feel better about ourselves. He doesn’t tie our success or approval to the performance of those around us.

1.28.18

If I have fullness in Christ, if I have everything God has in Christ, if I’m full of love and joy and affirmation and blessing and strength and Jesus, then there is no need for comparison and no place for competition. If I’m full of Jesus and Jesus is full of God, what do I have to prove to anyone? What do you have to prove? Nothing.

1.18.18

True freedom in Christ comes when you realize you have nothing to prove to anyone, because in Christ, God fully approves of you.

I’m the God of all the mistakes you’ve made. I’m the God of all the parts of you that you don’t want anybody to see. I’m not just the God of your success. I’m the God of your struggle. I’m not just the God of your victories. I’m the God of your defeats.

1.28.18